ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was held under the chairmanship of Noor Alam Khan, in the Parliament House pertaining to the Ministry of Industries and Production.

The committee, as usual, discussed the audit paras for the year 2019-2020; justification of increasing vehicles’ prices as well as briefings on the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) were also on the agenda of the committee.

The Committee gave the following recommendations: The Committee took severe notice of those employees who were appointed on fake degrees and directed the secretary Ministry of Industries and Production to lodge FIRs against them and initiate a drive to make recoveries from them as well.

Action may also be taken against the officers who appointed them and did not verify their educational degrees before and after their appointments and asked the secretary to submit a report to the PAC within seven days. The committee directed the Auditor General of Pakistan to conduct a performance audit of all the public-sector companies within one month.

On a question raised in the meeting, the committee issued directions to the NAB to utilise polite and civilised words in communications while seeking the help of other departments in the proceedings of inquiries and one of the representatives of the audit department be also included in the inquiries been conducted by the FIA and the NAB.

While discussing the distribution of food items at the Utility Stores, the chairman said that subsidized items are the right of only the poor and the under-privileged segment of society and its distribution should be quite transparent through a computerised mechanism.

The committee was surprised that subsidisedatta/flour bags were issued in the name of the chairman PAC himself in Peshawar, which shows that distributing mechanism of the USC is flawed and directed the secretary to probe the matter as to why subsidized atta/flour bags were fraudulently issued in the name of the chairman.

The committee also advised the secretary Ministry of Industries and Production that ladies should not be humiliated outside Utility Stores. The distribution of food items be made targeted to make it specific to the poor only. The committee directed the managing director USC to visit the pathetic condition of the utility stores, especially in the far-flung areas of Sindh and Balochistan such as Rojan Mazari, Dera Ghazi Khan etc to see whether the utility stores are fulfilling the needs of people, besides, to check whether only the approved food items are being sold out over there or not.

Public representatives be also given weightage while distributing subsidised food items to the poor.

The committee expressed displeasure over the non-presence of presidents and CEOs of auto mobile companies. The chairman directed the secretary Ministry of Industries and Production to make sure presence of Heads of automobile companies in the next meeting of the committee. The chairman FBR, Member Custom and Inland Revenue (FBR), secretary Ministry of Commerce, governor State Bank of Pakistan and chairman SECP were also directed to attend the next meeting. Since the prices of vehicles/cars are going beyond the control of the Ministry of Industries and Production, the committee requested the prime minister of Pakistan to open the import of vehicles/cars to overcome the monopoly of automobile companies in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022