President and Prime Minister discretionary powers caused huge dent to economy: PAC meeting held

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has termed the discretionary powers of President and Prime Minister as main cause of socio-economic problems of the country. The discretionary powers of President and Prime Minister have caused huge dent to country's economy, Nisar said during the Committee meeting here on Thursday.
The committee took up audit reports of the Population Welfare Division for 2005-06 and audit paras of Ministry of Industries and production of 2005 to 2007. The PAC pointed out massive embezzlement and poor implementations in the projects carried out by the Ministry of Industries and Production. The Committee was critical to Musharraf government's Clean Drinking Water Initiative project.
The PAC was informed that the 406 water filtration plants with the cost of Rs 115 million were to be installed in different parts of the country to provide pure drinking water to general public, but only 245 filtration plants had been in the country.
The Committee was also informed that the project for installation of water filtration plants was reviewed thrice, which has increased the cost of the project and decreased the number of filtration plants. The cost of this project was enhanced to Rs 999 million from original amount of Rs 115 million but it has not achieved its objectives yet.
A special audit report of the Water Filtration Plant project was presented before the committee, which stated that the water samples were obtained from filtration plants for laboratory testing and water from three sites was found not fit for human consumption.
Chaudhry Nisar reiterated that the PAC will take serious notice of projects conceived in haphazard nature and without objectives, which has resulted in loss of public tax money. He said the committee will take serious note of any project in which public money was wasted and it will hold Public Accounts Officer (Secretary) responsible if he allows the use of public money for waste. He directed the PAC secretariat to write to all the ministries in this regard.
Present Project Director Brigadier Sikandar Javed (Retd)informed the committee that no feasibility of the project was conducted and when he took over 90 percent of the plants were not fully operational. PAC Chairman said that there was an undue hurry to make this project viable and a clear reflection of state of affairs of the government. "The report is a classic story of lack of planning and lack of homework in the public sector of Pakistan," he added.
The PAC constituted a three-member sub-committee with Riaz Hussain Pirzada as its chairman, which will monitor the progress of important project for six months. The other two members are Nadeem Afzal Chan and Asia Nasir. The PAC also took up audit paras regarding Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (Pvt) Limited to the tune of more than Rs 3.1 billion besides Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (Pvt) Limited and State Cement Corporation of Pakistan (Pvt) Limited.
The audit authorities said PSM delivered steel products to eight dealers against bank guarantees. However, when presented for encashment, these bank guarantees proved fake and recoveries of Rs 49.35 million have not been made. The PSM management not only purchased aluminium ingots worth Rs 148.10 million on single quotation but also procured Ferro Vanadium worth Rs 142.13 million from a defaulting supplier by negotiations and ignoring the lowest bid.
The committee told PSM chairman Moeen Aftab that it would not tolerate approval of tender on the basis of single quotation in future and directed him to take steps for improvement of the efficiency of supreme institution. "We have endless stories and sagas of how this premier institution has been misused," Nisar remarked.
The committee has also directed Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) management to cut its losses and submit a report within six months regarding short-term and long-term strategy to bringing down the losses. PAC also settled appropriation accounts for the year 2005-06 of the ministry of population welfare with clear directives to adopt zero excess and saving approach.