A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday snubbed poorly prepared high officials of the food ministry for their inability to justify excessive expenditures incurred on various accounts mainly fertiliser import.
Top bureaucrats helplessly heard blistering criticism of members and watched them with eyes wide open and even one of them walked out of the meeting in protest.
It was Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) MNA Hafiz Hussain Ahmed who could not hold himself back and left the venue in protest when food ministry officials repeatedly came out with sluggish answers to his queries.
And as the situation remained the same after his departure, PAC Sub-Committee Chairman MNA Qamaruz Zaman Kaira thought it wiser to call it a day and deferred taking up the audit objections for another meeting scheduled to be held after a week or so.
But before suspending the proceedings, Kaira came down hard on the food ministry officials to force them taste humiliation of the parliamentary accountability.
"I am sorry. I am not personally happy the way you and your staff are responding to the committee's queries. This is not how the parliamentary accountability is handled," said Kaira.
Many a time, these officials either could not explain the reasons for irregularities or failed to supplement their arguments with the documentary evidences.
The sub-committee met to review the food ministry audit reports for the year 1989-90. Additional Secretary Muhammad Salim Khan and a bunch of other officials from various attached departments who represented the ministry at the meeting straightaway conceded their lack of preparation.
"We are at fault. We could have come more prepared, but unfortunately, it is not the case. We regret it", said Salim. The sub-committee expressed displeasure over the official's attitude.
Of the two audit objections that the panel could discuss in the day, one was about the irregular tendering of DAP import contract to other than the lowest bidders.