A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday sought a detailed report about the re-employment of two consultants in the communication ministry after their termination from the National Highway Authority (NHA) on charges of corruption.
Sub-committee chairman MNA Qamar Zaman Kaira while discussing audit paras of the communication ministry gave this directive. He said many questions were raised in the National Assembly regarding appointment of consultants and irregular promotions within the ministry in some other cases.
NHA chairman Major General Farrukh Javed informed the committee when the matter was brought to his knowledge, he asked one of the officials to resign or face the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
He said even the establishment division issued a letter that without its prior approval no such appointments should be made but these officers were re-employed.
The committee chairman was surprised as to how these officials were still serving after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had terminated their contracts. The NHA chairman said these officers were working on the orders of the court.
Discussing the audit paras of the Pakistan Post regarding the irregular purchase of furniture in which the department had suffered a loss of Rs 1.262 million, the committee directed to issue a letter of displeasure to Dil Nawaz, the then Post Master General, Peshawar.
The committee observed this irregularity was committed in 1989-90 but the department failed to implement the decision of the Departmental Audit Committee (DAC) that called for fixing the responsibility against the responsible official. The sub-committee slammed the NHA for the loss of Rs 100 million it suffered in various projects owing to over-payments and non-recovery of dues. The meeting directed the NHA to co-ordinate with the audit department to devise ways and means for the recovery of outstanding dues.
When NHA chairman Lieutenant General Farrukh Javed was inquired about the reasons for overpayment of Rs 54.6 million in the Multan-Bahawalpur project, he said a number of problems popped up while executing the project, including security and acquisition of the land.He said an amount of Rs 4 million was paid to an Italian company for carpeting of road with a new chemical for construction of the durable and long-lasting road.
Responding to the delay in the execution of the Lahore-Okara road project, he said removal of the population and acquisition of the land was the prime reason.
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