ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday directed the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to hold audit of recoveries of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for the last one year and also sought details of accounts where the bureau deposited Rs821 billion.

Member Committee Sherry Rehman brought the matter of the NAB’s recovery in the notice of committee members.

Rana Tanveer Hussain chaired the meeting of the committee.

In an informal talk with officials of the audit department, Sherry Rehman said that the NAB had disclosed in Senate Committee on Finance that it recoveries reached to Rs821 billion.

She questioned whether the recovered amount should be deposited in consolidated accounts of the government or kept in any separate account.

The officials explained that the NAB maintained its own accounts with the approval of Finance Division. However, they said that the Finance Division should be asked. The chairman committee said that the recovered amount of NAB was disbursed among victims, however, the percentage of recoveries of government embezzled amount was very low.

He maintained the NAB may be able to recover hardly Rs30 billion out of total recovered amount.

He also directed the PAC secretariat to write a letter to the NAB and asked where it put the recovered amount.

Member Committee Khawaja Asif said that government was owner of recovered amount not anyone else. Another Member Noor Alam asked the audit officials regarding audit of the NAB accounts.

He asked did audit officials carry audit of the NAB accounts. He maintained the meeting of sub-committee of the PAC was always cancelled whenever he summoned NAB officials in the meeting. The committee also examined Pakistan Railways Audit Report 2019-20. The audit officials disclosed that not even a single audit objection out of 114 were settled at the DAC level.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021