Buildings hired by PRAL: unwarranted expenditures were incurred: AGP

The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has expressed displeasure over excessive use of rental buildings hired by Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) for providing IT related services to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that the AGP has conducted special audit of PRAL, a subsidiary of the FBR, engaged in automation, e-services and compilation of data of federal taxes.
According to the audit objections of the AGP, un-warranted expenditure has been incurred by the PRAL on office rent in respect of various locations. Sources said that the audit observations of the AGP clearly reflected that the Chief Executive PRAL has ignored the government directives of austerity plan. The AGP has clearly pointed out that the annual rent of millions of rupees could easily be saved by reducing the number of rented buildings by curtailing unnecessary expenditures on such office buildings. Moreover, the PRAL authorities were also paying handsome amount as rent for these office buildings, as AGP has repeatedly termed this as unwarranted expenses on hired buildings.
Under the contract between the FBR and the PRAL, the accommodation to the PRAL has to be provided by the FBR, whereas the department is making inadmissible expenses, which are against the contract. Secondly, even the expenditure made on rented building are more than their needs, sources added.
As per clauses 3.1 of contract signed between FBR and PRAL, which envisages the General Standard of Performance, PRAL is required to provide services to FBR with due diligence, efficiency and economy. The scrutiny of record has transpired that PRAL is using five office Buildings at different locations (three in Islamabad, one in Lahore and one in Karachi) for performance of services to FBR and one office at another location is meant for Motorway Project. These buildings have been hired in F-6/3, Islamabad, F-6/2, Islamabad, 504, ETCB Islamabad, Halli Road, Rawalpindi and Model Town, Lahore.
It is reckoned that expenditure of Rs 2,099,520 on office building in F-6/2, Islamabad is quite un-warranted because there is ample vacant space in Hall hired in ETC Building which could be used by the administration team of PRAL, AGP observed.
Similarly, expenditure on account of rent of Rs 600,000 for office space for Customs Development Team acquired in Karachi is also quite un-warranted because FBR is agreed (as per contract) to provide furnished offices at FBR installations. The sufficient space has already been provided by Customs authorities at 9th floor of Customs House, Karachi and this Software Development team should be housed there by making internal arrangement with the help of Customs authorities.
The AGP has requested the PRAL to vacate the office buildings of F-6/2, Islamabad and office space acquired for Customs Software Development purpose in order to save an annual rent of millions of rupees for sake of economy as required by the service contract with FBR.
Responding to the audit observation, the department is of the view that as a general metric, the appropriateness of the size of office space is determined by the space available per employee and not by the number of offices. In addition there are factors like the purpose for which the spaces is needed, where it is needed and issues of security, telecom services and accessibility.
The office space in Karachi has only recently been commissioned because of the disruption at Custom House Karachi due to reconstruction work and the rebuilding of the new computer centre which is to commence shortly. Not just PRAL, but other Customs offices have had to relocate out of Custom House Karachi because of the reconstruction work, sources said.
Similarly, there is for the time being some excess office space at ETC only because there has been some delay in the procurement process related additional seats for the call centre. With expected surge in e-filing the operation of the call centre is expected to expand and the office space presently under-utilised at ETC will be fully utilised. In any case, the excess space at ETC even at this stage is not sufficient to house all the staff at the Admin and Accounts office at F-6/2. The ETC office is also housing the metro SAN and related equipment, which apparently had not been installed when the auditors made their observation. It may be noted that Metro SAN facility relates to the local node in the disaster recovery infrastructure where the data from the production data centre is stored within a radius of 25 KM before it is pumped to a more distant disaster recovery facility. The ETC building is the designated Metro-Site for the Islamabad Data Centre presently operating out of Old CBR Building, it added.