The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) and the Ministry of Finance are at loggerheads over carrying out audit of AGP as the former says that constitutionally the ministry can not carry out expenditure audit of the AGP while the latter insists it has full authority to conduct the exercise.
This situation erupted in a meeting of the subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was held here under the chairpersonship of Shahida Akhtar to discuss the matters related to giving full autonomous status to the AGP.
During the meeting, the secretary finance on the question of MNA Noor Alam Khan said that the AGP is among the 25 attached departments of the Finance Ministry and the ministry has the authority to carry out expenditure audit of the department.
Responding to the secretary finance, AGP Javaid Jehangir said that his institution being a special constitutional entity as per law is not liable to be audited by the ministry of finance as it is a matter of conflict of interest, adding that as per Constitution there are three pillars of state and two special bodies including Election Commission of Pakistan and AGP with autonomous status.
However, AGP Javaid Jehangir said that the Ministry of Finance can conduct sanctioned audit of his department but as per law the ministry can't conduct performance audit of the AGP, adding that independent auditors can be given the task of having audit of the AGP to do so. There is a need to amend the law to conduct expenditure and performance audit of the AGP, he maintained.
The Finance Ministry officials informed the committee that a meeting between the top officials of AGP and Finance Ministry is scheduled to be held on January 16 wherein all such matters will be discussed and the findings of the meeting will be shared with PAC as well, which was agreed by the AGP also.
Member committee Noor Alam Khan said that on one side AGP wants full autonomy but on the other, the institution has badly failed to conduct the audit of the powerful corridors like National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He said that years have been passed the NAB started building headquarters costing multimillion rupees without getting approval from the authorities concerned but so far AGP has failed to conduct the audit of NAB.
The AGP responding to Noor Alam Khan said that the department had taken notice of the case when the NAB started construction of headquarters, adding that the report has been finalized and will soon be laid down before the main PAC for review and discussion.
The committee also asked AGP about the audit of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and social safety networks including Benazir Income Support Program and Ehsaas program. The AGP said that the department has conducted audit of BISIP along with other social safety programs as well as CPEC which have been shared with the PAC.
On a question, the AGP said that the department takes up to 35-45 percent accounts as sample of any audit and concludes around 20-25 percent of the sample in final audit paras which as compared with international practices is quite high.
He said that the most of the officials working with AGP are equipped with highly professional education and are not being paid at par with their competitiveness in other public or private sector employees; therefore many of the employees are either leaving the services or want to go in other institutions on deputation.
He also pleaded the panel to recommend a special incentive for the AGP employees in line with the NAB employees, saying that audit department is recovering up to Rs 90 billion annual from various defaulters but in return the officials are not getting anything other than an honorarium equal to their basic pay, while NAB employees have a certain share in recoveries.
Additional Secretary Finance Ministry said that the Parliament can play most active and critical role in checking ever-increasing debt which will have significant impact on monetary and fiscal policies of the government. He said that debt to GDP ratio in Pakistan has reached around 80 percent which a few years back was below 70 percent.
MNA Noor Alam Khan said that governor State Bank of Pakistan being a nominee of International Monetary Fund (IMF) has declined to attend the PAC meetings as he was invited to brief the members on monetary policy. The Finance Ministry officials said that the governor SBP will attend the next meeting of the panel and will brief about the roles, functions and other activities of the Bank to the panel.
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