Post-December 27 violence: PAC doubts Sindh departments claims on gutted records

Many of the Sindh government's departments claims on the burning of their fiscal records during post-December 27 violence appear to be aimed at shielding their financial irregularities involving millions of rupees.
This was observed by the members of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Sindh Assembly on Thursday while scrutinising the irrigation and power department's Audit Report for 2004-05. Out of the 18, PAC settled 10 draft paras, two of them partially, and deferred eight others involving anomalies of around Rs 872.935 million.
The number of the total draft paras in the said audit report was 40, of which 22 were settled by the committee earlier in its January 13 and May 14 meetings. "Many of the (Sindh government) departments have escaped verification of their financial records from the audit in the name of December 27 violence," Moin Amir Pirzada, a PAC member, said when some of the department's offices from Dadu Division referred to the post-December 27 violence as a justification for the non-production of their records.
According to a draft para some offices had failed to produce record for the expenditure of at least Rs 38.449 million on various accounts during the year in question. The committee under the chairmanship of Jam Tamachi grilled the department over different irregularities highlighted by the audit, but the latter could not come up with, what sources said, "satisfactory" answers.
Tamachi asked the department's officials to get their record, involving the huge amounts of Rs 402.733 million, Rs 306.522 million, Rs 46.308 million, Rs 37.269 million, Rs 30.403 million and Rs 6.651 million under various heads, like non-recoveries of water and electricity dues, irregular expenditures, misuse of project etc verified from the audit.
Setting a 15-day deadline for the presentation of the required records, the PAC chief directed the department to produce documentary proof of a transaction made for the illegal purchase of a Land Cruiser at Rs 4.6 million instead of a Potohar Jeep specified in PC-I.