ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has examined 4,716 audit paras out of which 41 paras were referred to the NAB, 24 to the FIA, and 1,318 paras were referred for pursuance at the Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) level since constituted on December 20, 2018.
Around 2,084 grants and 29,750 paras, including backlog of previous PACs, for which the PAC and its sub-committees have held 225 meetings.
The 15th PAC was headed by the Leader of Opposition, Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, MNA as its chairman who was substituted by Rana Tanveer Hussain, MNA subsequently on 28 November 2019.
It inherited a backlog of seven years Audit Reports from 2010-11 to 2016-17, whereas three Audit Reports from 2017-18 to 2019-20 were referred to it recently.
It constituted seven Sub-Committees for Audit Reports and a Sub-Committee on Monitoring and Implementation.
Audit Reports of the period of government of the PML-N are being examined by the Sub-Committees headed by members not belonging to the PML-N.
It presented a Special Report, which was adopted by the National Assembly for Structural Changes to Improve the Performance of the PAC, compliance of directions of the speaker to streamline it, reaffirming the Audit Jurisdiction of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) relating to authorities or bodies established by, or under the control of, the federal government and chalking out of plans of holding the DACs meetings.
The recovery of Rs300,757.941 million on the directions of the PAC has also been verified by the AGP.
The PAC has also efficiently and effectively addressed the issues relating to: activation of 17 Compliance Cells of AGP throughout Pakistan; DACs meetings regularized through repeated directives; letter to prime minister and requiring secretaries Establishment and Cabinet to streamline it; adoption of 19 PAC reports through the National Assembly since 1985; Annual Finance Accounts/Financial Statement of the Government for the year 2017-2018 were discussed in the PAC for the second time in the history of PAC on 17-01-2020 (firstly in 1988-89 PAC report); discontinuation of Neelum-Jhelum surcharge on electricity bills; removed Indian content, blocked porno, improved poor signals of cellular companies; ban on plastic bags was recommended to be imposed throughout the country; removal of one-year restriction on new gas connections; posting transfers at same station beyond three years; NADRA was required for three years job rotation; Ministry of Interior to reimburse Rs650 to 30,600 candidates who could not appear in the written test before National Testing Service (NTS) due to prior physical screening; redressal of the grievances of electricity consumers in rural areas - load shedding etc; simplification of the rules and reduction of the discretionary powers of the officers of the FBR; details of recoveries made from accused by the NAB; Report of construction of Sukkur-Multan Motorway; proper utilisation of Pakistan Boys Scouts Association's land; follow up of various road infrastructure projects of the NHA; making rules for appointment of director general in the Aviation Division and on complaints of delay, raised issue of the pipelines project of Inter-State Gas Systems (ISGS) with Russia and directed audit to conduct a Performance Audit of the ISGS Company within one and a half month and report.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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