An imprudent expenditure of Rs4.334 billion has been detected in the purchase of weapons, ammunition and other stores for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Police, said an Audit Report on the Accounts of government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Audit year 2010-11.
The audit report, compiled by the Directorate-General, Audit, had already been presented in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and referred to its Public Accounts Committee.
It said that according to para 145 of General Financial Rules (GFR) Vol-I, purchases should be made in most economical manner and in accordance with the definite requirements of the public service. Moreover, the tender notice should be very clean and precise to secure government interest.
The Provincial Police Officer, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa incurred an expenditure of Rs4.334 billion on the purchase of heavy weapons, ammunitions and other store during 2009-10 and the Directorate of Audit noticed four kinds of irregularities or shortcomings in the process of purchase.
It said that 90 percent of payment of Rs4.334 billion was made to M/S Majid & Sons and his group namely M/S AL Moize, Shahid Traders & others despite the fact that their rates especially of M/S Majid & Sons were 2-3 times higher than other bidders.
The purchase of rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, ammunition of grenades, sub-machine guns, explosive detector, bullet-proof jackets, bullet-proof helmet, anti-riot gear and other stores were made directly from open market, or Norinco (China North Industrial Corporation) through M/S Majid & Sons. The purchases werer made despite the fact that high standard weapons and ammunitions were locally available in the Pakistan Ordinance Factory, Wah, directly supervised by the technical and skilled persons of the Pakistan Army and other agencies. If the store could not be arranged by the POF than no-objection certificate should have been obtained from the POF, Wah.
Furthermore, no technical expert on heavy weapons e.g. rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, LMGs, hand-grenades, bullet-proof jackets were included in the purchase/evaluation committee except officers of the Police Department, Budget Officer, Police Department, Section Officer, Home Department and Superintendent Planning and Development (P&D) Department. Thus the quality and standard of the store could not be certified/confirmed.
The audit had held that the cause of uneconomical expenditure was the violation of rules and NIT conditions.
The uneconomical expenditure was pointed out in October 2010. But the management did not furnish any reply.
In the meeting of Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) held on January 20, 2011, the department replied that the police department purchased various weapons/ammunitions and other store from M/S Norinco China through his agent M/S Majeed & Sons, which were selected after completion of all codal formalities. The case of imposition of penalty for delay was under process.
The Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs had allowed the purchase of arms/ammunition from open market, instead of the Wah Ordinance Factory. The Police Department had bad experience in the past with POF Wah as they raised rate, delayed the supply and the quality was also doubtful.
However, audit disagreed with the chairman DAC with following descending remarks and conditions of notice inviting tender were violated, the letter of credit was required to be opened in the name of M/S Norinco China, which was not done. Similarly, the firm participated in the tender was required to be financially sound and to present documentary proof about their firms' status, including bank statement, which was also not done.
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