The National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday took up the case of embezzlement in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) grant aid, which forced the executive director of UNFPA to write a letter to the President, asking him to intervene.
Chairman of the Committee Nadeem Afzal Gondal constituted a two-member fact-finding committee comprising Secretary Planning and Development Division and Deputy Auditor General of Pakistan, asking it to submit its report not later than March 13. On the recommendation of the sub-committee, a special audit of the project is yet to be conducted.
A PAC Member, Dr Attiya Inayatullah, flayed the secretary planning and health authorities for failing to address the President's directives in line with the spirit of the letter. She said it was shameful that an executive of a United Nations' agency in had complained to Pakistani Ambassador about embezzlement in UNFPA funds and ultimately the matter was brought to the notice of the Head of the State. She said no recovery was made, which was humanitarian assistance for improving mother and child health in Pakistan and the money was released in June 2011.
The official of the Ministry of Health said that no embezzlement had been detected by an audit team of the UNFPA. Even UNFPA's Pakistan Office tendered an apology during a meeting with the Planning Division. They argued that it was not in the knowledge of the Pakistan office and no feed back was taken from them on the subject.
Secretary Planning Division Hassan Nawaz Tarar said that the federal government would continue funding family planning (Population) projects in provinces even after the passage of the 18th Amendment. During the current year, it would disburse Rs 2.2 billion to provinces in this head.
The Secretary explained that the division had made the following decision that was taken in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting. The CCI decided as population was not catered in current NFC Award, therefore, the federal government would finance the ongoing population control projects until sufficient amount was allocated for them in the next NFC Award.
He negated the impression that there was a shortage of contraceptives, saying USAID had provided enough stock to meet the increasing need. A thorny issue again came before the committee that NADRA was exempt from audit by Auditor-General of Pakistan (AGP). Legal experts of the Ministry of Interior stressed that the AGP should amend its rules in accordance with 18th Amendment and determine their scope.
Deputy AGP insisted that there no amendment is needed in their rules to carry out audit of autonomous bodies. The Chairman rejected the opinion of the Ministry of Law and Justice on the ground that it only heard NADRA and not the AGP's version. The committee also looked into an audit objection against Nawab Yousuf Talpur for misuse of official vehicles when he was the federal minister of Agriculture in 2001. Nawab Talpur said he had written thrice to the ministry for producing evidence, but they did not produce it. The PAC directed the authorities concerned to resolve the issue by Monday.
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