Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Rana Asad Amin, who is responsible for pursuing misappropriations and financial irregularities in all state departments, has been seemingly turning a blind eye to his own subordinates implicated in financial irregularities and misappropriations of public funds.
Some of the AGP officers have been found involved in financial misappropriations in successive AGP reports but they were allowed to retire and go home without recovery of the huge amounts mentioned even in the AGP’s own reports.
The Auditor General of Pakistan’s reports are presented for discussion before both houses of the parliament under Article 171 of the constitution.
Since 2008, when Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was appointed as Chairman, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been actively pursuing cases of misappropriation of public funds, and has not only recommended recovery of the misappropriated amounts, but has also recommended disciplinary action against the delinquents.
Nadeem Afzal Chan who was appointed Chairman of the PAC after the resignation of Chaudhry Nisar did not deviate from the strict policy of the Committee. Similar policy of non-tolerance of irregularities is being pursued by the current PAC chairman, Syed Khursheed Shah.
While the PAC is the face of the accountability, the Auditor General of Pakistan has been claiming that it is actually the audit reports of the auditor general, which form the basis of the success of the PAC.
IRREGULARITIES INVOLVING AGP OFFICIALS:
During the audit of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) by auditors belonging to the Auditor General’s department, massive irregularities have come to light year after year and have been duly reported in the Audit Reports for the years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.
These audit observations not only include irregularly extending personal benefits to the employees of BISP, but also to other firms, some of which are now being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The total number of audit paras in three audit reports from 2012 to 2015 is 45, which is unprecedented given the fact that the accounts and finances of BISP are being managed by officers on deputation from the Auditor General’s department.
But while the AGP relentlessly pursues misappropriations and financial irregularities in other departments during meetings of the PAC, he conveniently turns a blind eye where his own officers are involved. Amongst a number of audit observations indicating the active connivance of the officers on deputation from the AGP’s department, audit para 2.4.2 of Audit Report 2012-13 contains the names of nine officers of the AGP’s department involved in irregularly obtaining financial benefits amounting to Rs 3.734 million.
According to audit para 2.4.2 of Audit Report 2012-13, Rule 15(4)(c) of Accommodation Allocation Rules, 2002, an allottee who is transferred to an autonomous organisation at the same station may retain the accommodation under intimation to the Estate Office till such time as that organisation provides him alternate accommodation or for a period of five years, whichever is earlier. The total monthly House Rent Allowance payable to the allottee or his rental ceiling, whichever is more, will be payable into government treasury by the organization.
Similarly, paragraph 10(v) of General Financial Rules Volume-I states that the amount of allowances granted to meet expenditure of a particular type should be so regulated that the allowances are not on the whole a source of profit to the recipients.
The audit observation goes on to state that 9 deputation officers from the AGP paid to themselves an amount of Rs 3.734 million on account of House Rent Allowance (HRA) @ 60% during 2010-12.
The auditors further observed that the deputation officers were paid House Rent Allowance @ 60% of their basic pay despite the fact that they were allotted government accommodation. The House Rent Allowance was not deposited into the government treasury in violation of Rule 15(4)(c) of Accommodation Allocation Rules, 2002 and that the monthly House Rent Allowance paid to employees on deputation had become a source of profit to the recipients. The auditors recommended that the BISP management should recover the amount paid irregularly and deposit it in the government treasury.
Despite clear evidence of irregular payment in the Audit Report 2012-13, former BISP deputy director Ehsanullah Cheema was allowed to retire from service on January 17 of this year, without recovering an amount of Rs 990,000 which had been overpaid to him for the period up to June, 2012. A further amount of Rs 534,000 is to be recovered from him for the period between July 2012 and June 2013 as reported in Audit Report 2013-14. If you include the amount mentioned in para 2.4.1 of Audit Report 2014-15, the total recoverable amount is more than Rs 2 million.
The Auditor General conveniently looked the other way while sanctioning the pension papers of the officer although he was working as Director (Provincial Audit), office of the AGP.
Under Article 351-B of Civil Service Rules, every civil servant on retirement undertakes to refund any overpaid amount that comes to notice within one year of issuance of Pension Payment Order. Three months have already passed since the retirement of Ehsanullah Cheema. Once a year has passed, the amount will be marked no-recoverable.
Deputy Auditor General (DAG) Jamal Abdul Nasir Usmani is also due to retire from service in November 2016. His recoverable amount is nearly Rs 1.8 million.
Interestingly, Jamal Abdul Nasir Usmani now represents the AGP in the Public Accounts Committee which is a clear conflict of interest as he as the audit paras related to his own case of illegally obtaining public funds also needs to be discussed by the PAC.
When contacted, Deputy Auditor General Jamal Abdul Nasir Usmani admitted that he owes Rs 1.8 to the national exchequer. He promised to make sure to return the amount before his retirement which is due in November 2016. Otherwise, he said, his pension and gratuity won’t be paid to him.
When asked why one of his colleagues, Ehsanullah Cheema, was not asked to pay the recoverable amount to the exchequer and was instead given pension, Usmani said he did not know about the matter and promised to look into it and to pursue it relentlessly.
Asked if there was a conflict of interest as he himself owed money to national exchequer, and could in theory make sure that the audit paras relating to his case are never taken up the Committee, he said he was a serving officer of the AGP and could be appointed against any post.
“If they transfer me to another post, I will still do my job. But that is not my decision to make,” he said.