The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2016, which compares governance in 140 countries, lowered the ranking of the Accountant General of Pakistan (AGP) - from 90 last year to 117 in 2015. Pakistan was ranked at 126 14th from the bottom - for this year, compared to a ranking of 125th last year and maintained that regulatory bodies have shown weak governance indicators.
The Accountant General of Pakistan on the strength of accounting and reporting strength has gone from the rank of 90 in the last year to 117 in 2015. It comes under the administrative control of Auditor General of Pakistan, an official said. Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Asad Amin, a close confidante of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, in the latest audit report has indicated a recovery of Rs 79 billion in the commercial audit accounts report for year 2014-15. The report will be laid in the National Assembly's session for discussion scheduled on October 26. Later, it will be discussed in the Senate.
The AGP has approached the Parliamentary Affairs Division to include the motion for laying the federal accounts for financial year 2013-14 (FY14) and audit reports for the audit year 2014-15, in the coming session of both the houses of parliament. Additional Auditor General Javaid Jehangir has sent a letter to Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs Division.
Under Article 171 of the constitution, the AGP submits reports relating to the accounts of the federation to the President who causes them to be laid before the parliament. The President has accorded approval to the federal accounts for the financial year 2013-14 and audit reports thereon for the audit year 2014-15. According to the report, Rs 1.34 billion was recovered from January 2014 to January 2015 including recoveries pertaining to previous audit reports. However the AGP reportedly claimed that Rs 40 billion has been recovered every year through audit reports due to irregularities in public sector funds/departments.
During the three-year tenure of then opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan as Chairman Public Accounts Committee, the committee recovered the record amount of more than Rs 115 billion. The 14th PAC was constituted on August 21, 2013 and Syed Khurshid Shah was elected as chairman of PAC on December 11, 2014. In the last two years, the recovery of public money on account of embezzlements, misappropriations and irregularities is small compared to the previous PAC, an official of the PAC told Business Recorder.