PAC criticises Finance Ministry for freezing millions in development budget

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Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Syed Khursheed Shah on Thursday said that due to inefficiency of finance ministry millions of rupees of development budget had been frozen.

“Grants sanctioned to departments, as a result of the delay, not only cause non-completion of projects in time but also freezes millions of rupees,” Shah said during a meeting of PAC on the audit objections about millions of rupees of funds sanctioned to National High Way Authority (NHA) which were not used and had, therefore, been frozen. The PAC chairman said that there was a dire need to change the situation.

He said that the responsibility resided with the Ministry of Finance. The PAC chairman constituted a three member committee consisting of Syed Naveed Qamar, Shafqat Mahmood and Pervez Malik. The committee will initiate measures for solution of the problem with the consultation of finance secretary, planning secretary and other officials concerned.

During the meeting of the PAC, the NHA chairman said that the Authority received the grant of first quarter in the second quarter which meant that the development projects could not be completed on time and part of the funds had also been frozen.

On this, the PAC chairman stressed the need to resolve the problem and settle all the objections raised by NHA in the audit report regarding non-use of millions of rupees of funds.