Massive irregularities were unearthed in different Sindh government departments, as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Sindh Assembly has detected bulk of anomalies involving more than Rs 158.751 million in the completion of various projects by the Information Technology (IT) and Planning and Development (P&D) Departments of Sindh.
Moreover, five of the Sindh Government Departments, Finance, Health, Education, P&D and Services and General Administration (S&GA) were found without having computerised their records under Rs 39.958 million E-Government Pilot Project, despite passing of eight very months after completion of the project, IT Minister, Raza Haroon told the provincial watchdog on Tuesday.
The PAC, which scrutinised the five draft paras in the 2003-04 audit report of IT Department, deferred the paragraphs on Tuesday till next meeting. While scrutinising, the PAC also found that despite spending Rs 37.564 million of the public money, the department had failed to achieve the targets by June 2004 for three of its mega projects.
The PAC Chairman, Jam Tamachi also ordered an inquiry backed by the Chief Minister against the former In-Charge, Deputy Project Director, Aftab Alam, who remained under fire at the meeting for irregular spending of Rs 589,492 by the Department, for not achieving targets for various projects and for an added anomalous act of non-production of record involving a huge amount of Rs 27.437 million.
According to para 8.1, during 2000-2004, the P&D department had spent Rs 47.024 million out of the released Rs 91.997 million on two different projects, 'Establishment of Information Technology Centre, Karachi' and 'E-Government. Pilot Project for Sindh Government (Phase-I),' both of the projects having identical objectives.
The overlapping of objectives, found in the para, had resulted in financial burden on the Government, duplication of financial and human resources, wastage of time and energy and a defective planning process by the department. The Department, however, claimed that though the two projects could be executed under single PC-I and their objective may be identical, but no financial loss to the Government had taken place.
On the directives of the IT Minister, who attended the meeting on the request of Tamachi, the Secretary IT, Rauf Akhtar Farooqui assured the Committee that latest position of these two projects with original documents and record would be presented for audit. Meanwhile, the provincial IT Minister almost implored the PAC Chief to do something to convince these five designated departments of Sindh Government to avail of the 'computer software system' made available to them by his department under E-Government Pilot Project eight months ago and computerise their respective records.
'It has been eight months now that my Department made the software available for use, but unfortunately it is not being used,' he said. Further he questioned whether the bureaucracy, officers or the Government don't want transparency in their functioning.
Furthermore, para 8.4 of the audit revealed that the IT Department had achieved the targets (up to June 2004) for its projects, establishment of IT Centre, E-Government Pilot Project for Sindh Government (Phase-I) and IT Training for Sindh Government Employees (Phase-I) respectively by zero, zero and 54.86 percent only. The department had suggested that the then In-Charge, Deputy Project Director, who had allegedly committed the irregularities, could be held responsible.
The PAC asked the Department for documentary proofs, as para 8.2, 8.3 and 8.5 unearthed the expenditure of Rs 652,764, not covered in PC-I for various projects, spending of Rs 589,492 on the purchase of various computer items and non-production of record involving Rs 27.437 million respectively. Later, talking to newsmen, the PAC Chairman, Jam Tamachi said that all the five paras were deferred till next meeting, as none of the concerned officials could come up with 'satisfactory answers' to the audit's reservations.
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