The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday declared appointment of two deputy chairmen in National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) illegal and directed the Ministry of Interior to issue instructions in this regard within five days and resolve the matter.
"According to the Nadra board decision, Nadra Ordinance 2000 clearly prohibits Ministry of Interior to appoint any employee including deputy chairman in Nadra. After the board decision there is no option to appoint two deputy chairmen namely Dr Tahir Ikram and Naveed Jan in Nadra and such appointment is clearly illegal," Chairman PAC Nadeem Afzal Chand said.
The meeting was presided over PAC Chairman Nadeem Afzal Chand and attended by Noor Alam Khan, Asiya Nasir, Yasmeen Rehman, Waseem Akhtar, Zahid Hamid, Saeed Ahmad Zafer, Secretary Ministry of Finance Abdual Wajid Rana, Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) Ahmad Bakhsh Lehri, Additional Secretary Ministry of Interior Shahid Hamid, Secretary Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Rasheed Ahmad, Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Buland Akhtar Rana and other senior officials.
Sardar Riaz questioned that under what rules two deputy chairmen were appointed in Nadra. On this additional secretary Ministry of Interior Shahid Hamid said the matter was sub-judice.
Waseem Akhater said if the mater was sub-judice then how the two deputy chairmen were performing their duties in Nadra. Syed Ahmad Zafar said that PAC was not a respondent in the case therefore the committee needed to issue recommendations and declared the appointments illegal. On this Nadeem Afzal Chand said the appointments were illegal and directed the Secretary Interior to issue instruction in this regard within five days.
The PAC meeting asked the Additional Secretary Interior that why Nadra refused to allow AGP to conduct its audit. Additional Secretary Interior said that under Nadra Ordinance 2001, Nadra can hire commercial auditors for audit.
AGP Buland Akhtar Rana said that after 18th amendment, AGP could conduct audit of any authority or body established by the Federal Government at federal or provincial level. "Some of the organisations have refused to have audit on one pretext or the other," he said. He said AGP had also issued two letters to the Ministry of Law to make necessary amendments in the law in this regard.
Yasmeen Rehman said "if we exempt Nadra from audit then what is the fault of other departments? Accountability of taxpayer money is the responsibility of PAC, therefore audit of Nadra was mandatory, she said. Syed Ahmad Zafer said if Nadra was an independent authority then why it followed the instruction of Ministry of Interior. Audit was a process of check and balance therefore anything related to public exchequer should be audited, he said.
Chairman PAC was of the view that if Ministry of Interior wanted to open Pandora Box, "then we will order for special audit of Nadra for last five years to make everything clear." Nadeem Afzal Chand directed Additional Secretary Interior to respond to the PAC within 10 days that Nadra was ready for the audit. "In case of no response, we will automatically consider refusal by the Ministry to carry out audit and then the PAC will take appropriate decision."
Chaudhry Rasheed Ahmad, Secretary Ministry of Information Technology assured the PAC that they were ready to conduct the audit of National Press Trust (NPT). The committee directed Rasheed Ahmad to ask Auditor General within three days to conduct the audit of NPT. The committee also questioned Secretary Ministry of Finance Abdul Wajid Rana about the audit of Pak-China Investment Company Limited (PCICL).
Secretary Ministry of Finance Abdual Wajid Rana informed the committee that Pak-China was a limited company established under the company's ordinance and managed by its independent board of directors. The owners of the company were two sovereign states including Pakistan and China under the sovereign joint venture agreement, he said. "PCICL is not solely established by the federal government but it was established by the two sovereign states," he said.
He said PCICL was established on July 27, 2007 in pursuance of a joint venture agreement between governments of Pakistan and China. The authorised share capital of the company is 200 million dollars, which is to be contributed equally by the both sides. China Development Bank (CDB) and the Ministry of Finance have paid three tranches totalling 67 million dollars each as equity during 2007, 2008 and 2009, he said. He said the paid up capital of the company stood at Rs 7400 million.
He said the two states had equal shareholding in the company hence majority control was not with government of Pakistan (GOP) therefore it could not be categorised as a company of GOP only. Pakistan and China have very long cordial relations therefore, due prosecution was required in this regard so that good relations between two brotherly states may not be affected. The committee directed AGP to discuses this matter with the sub-committee of PAC and submit a report within one week in this regard.
The committee was informed that Agribusiness Development and Diversification Project (ADDP) - a project of Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF) - was initiated by the government of Pakistan with a loan agreement with Asian Development Bank. The total outlay of the project was Rs 4,000 million and the ASF component was around Rs 94 million.
The committee was further informed that the audit of ADDP for the years 2005 to 2007 had already been conducted by the office of AGP. "In addition the audit for the period of 2007-2008 to 2009-2010 has also been carried out and reports have been sent to the ASF. The ASF have received no instructions from AGP for the second audit however, they are ready for that too."
Chairman of the Committee also directed AGP to submit a report regarding the legal status of Agribusiness Support Fund as well as inform the committee about the assets including vehicle and office furniture of ADDP. Additional Secretary (NFS&R) Abdul Basit Khan informed the committee that ADDP owned 737 vehicles of various kinds.
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