Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has expressed serious anger over the officials of Education department as they don't have the answers about the irregularities of millions of rupees made in various projects. PAC showed this anger during the meeting held at committee room-1 of Sindh Assembly building here on Thursday.
PAC Chairman Sardar Jam Tamachi Unarr presided over the meeting while MPAs Shama Arif Mithani, Ghulam Mujadid Isran, Amir Moin Pirzada and Shoaib Ibrahim (who came with little delay) attended the meeting. Secretary Education Mohammad Siddique Memon came to attend the meeting with more than one dozen of officials of the department for his assistance. A few officers of Audit were also present during the meeting to guide the PAC.
All participants became surprised by seeing Chief Secretary Raja Mohammad Abbas who came to attend the meeting, as it was the first time in last more than three and half years of PAC that Chief Secretary has attended the meeting. Raja Mohammad Abbas during the meeting expressed anger over the Secretary Education and asked that why he had not tried to attend the PAC meeting scheduled twice but postponed on his request.
Secretary Education sought pardon over the matter and explained that he was out of country, therefore he had requested to postpone the PAC meeting. When meeting has started formally, the Secretary Education could not reply over the para of audit in which it was stated that "in the office of Secretary Education and Literacy, it was noticed that an amount of Rs 61.20 million was drawn from the office of Accountant General Sindh on abstract bill and transferred to various institutions as grant-in-aid without obtaining the detail of expenditure".
Before the PAC, Chief Secretary Raja Mohammad Abbas expressed anger over the Secretary Education and asked that why he was not prepared to reply about that para? He said, "This is totally non-seriousness which can not be tolerated because you (Secretary Education) should reply positively and get settled all paras." Later, the CS left the meeting with issuing of instruction to Secretary Education that report regarding this meeting would be submitted at his office.
Audit Officer read a para of audit of FY 2007-08 that "In the office of Project Director Sindh Elementary Teachers Training Project Karachi, an expenditure of Rs 96.177 million was incurred on purchase of 43 vehicles ie Toyota-Parado, Toyota-Hilux, Toyota Hiace, Suzuki-Cultus etc. Payment was made to Pak Suzuki Limited and Indus Motors Company Limited without fulfilment of requirements. It was noticed that approval of competent authority for purchase of vehicles was not obtained and purchase committee was not constituted for the purpose".
Secretary Education replied that this matter was under investigation with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and department was also pursuing this matter very seriously. In other para of audit it was mentioned that "in the office of Managing Director Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) Karachi, an amount of Rs 93.795 million was unauthorised by transferring from PLA (CSSP programme) to the bank accounts of project instead of payment directly to the sub-ordinate offices/suppliers/constructors on account of establishment charges, school support cost (grant-in-aid) and field activities etc."
Secretary Education replied that department has approached Finance department for post facto sanction whereas Finance department has not replied in this regard yet. Expressing anger, Jam Tamachi Unarr directed the Secretary Education to issue show-cause notices to those officers involved in these illegal practices.
Secretary Education while explaining the position on another para regarding "irregular expenditure of Rs 28.986 million made by officials of Sindh Elementary Teachers Training Project without inviting tenders", said that this matter was also under investigation with NAB. Jam Tamachi Unarr asked the Secretary to submit the fresh report of NAB in this regard at the PAC office.
Replying regarding the para about "Non-accountable stationery of Rs 8.327 purchased by the officials of Sindh Elementary Teachers Training Project", Secretary Education commented that "it was the dark period of Education department when purchases like this was made".
Unarr directed PAC Secretary Hadi Bux Burirro to write letters to the Chief Minister and Governor Sindh to take notices of corruption like this. While not satisfying with the reply of Secretary Education about the audit para of "irregular expenditure of Rs 1.848 million by the officials of said project without supporting vouchers", Jam directed that letters would be written to departments where involved officers were working nowadays, in which it would be mentioned that amount would be deducted from their salaries.
In said para, Naimatullah Shaikh, Hizbullah Shaikh, Hassan Memon and Gulzar Ahmed were allegedly involved who were posted in said project when said expenditure was occurred without supporting vouchers. Like said paras of audit, there were total 23 paras in which it was disclosed that officers of Education Department of various projects had made irregularities of millions of rupees but nobody was ready to recover that heavy amount from the pockets of involved officers, it was observed. During the meeting, only five paras were settled out of total 23 paras of audit. It may be noted here that PAC would review the paras of audit of various FYs of Health department on March 30, at the committee room-1 of Assembly building.
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