The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has detected a loss of Rs59.55 million in the Provincial Housing Authority (PHA) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to non-recovery of compensation, wasteful expenditure, unauthentic payment, non-recovery of interest and allowing premium on the non-scheduled items, said AGP Report 2015-16 on the accounts of KP government.
The AGP Report has already been presented in the provincial assembly and the Speaker has referred it to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the house. Unlike National Assembly, the PAC of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is headed by the Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani.
The first case of the loss amounting to Rs26.47 million was noticed due to non-recovery of compensation for delay in completion of work during financial years 2011-13 in the office of the Director General (DG) Provincial Housing Authority (PHA), Peshawar.
It was noticed that different contractors were awarded works at various locations of the housing schemes at Molazai, Nasapa and Jarma (Kohat) with the specific period of completion. However, the contractors failed to abide by the said condition. They delayed the works abnormally despite the fact that repeated extensions in time for completion of the works were allowed to them, but, they failed to complete it.
Neither penalty in light of the relevant clause of the contract agreement was imposed nor was compensation for delay in completion of work amounting to Rs26.47 million recovered from them.
Audit held that non-recovery of compensation was due to undue favour to the contractor and financial mismanagement on the part of the local office.
The loss was pointed out in January 2014 and the management replied that the contractor was informed time and again to complete the work. Final notices will be issued in case of failure. The security will be forfeited and intimated to audit. No progress was intimated till finalization of this report.
In the Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) meeting held in October 2014, the representatives of the PHA were not fully prepared therefore; the Chairman of DAC directed them to come up with revised working papers and replies. No further progress was intimated till finalization of this report.
The audit has recommended the recovery of the compensation for delay and progress be shown to the Public Accounts Committee.
Similarly, another loss amounting to Rs20.97 million was detected due to wasteful expenditure on mega city during financial year 2012-13, in the office of Director General (DG) Provincial Housing Authority, Peshawar. It was noticed that payment of Rs20.97 million was allowed to M/s Shah's Consultant on account of carrying out different activities in the Mega City Project.
The record showed that neither any progress towards the launching of Mega City housing scheme has been initiated despite the fact that huge expenditure of Rs20.97 million has since been incurred on its feasibility etc and a time of more than 18 months also elapsed but no physical work done on the ground. Therefore, the expenditure of Rs.20.97 million seems to have been wasted and is a loss to the public exchequer.
Audit held that the wasteful expenditure was incurred due to financial indiscipline. The loss was pointed out in January 2014 and the management stated that detailed reply would be given later on.
The DAC meeting held in October 2014, the representatives of PHA were not fully prepared therefore, the Chairman DAC directed them to come up with revised working papers and replies, but till finalization of AGP report no progress was intimated and the audit recommended investigation into the matter and explanation of the reasons behind the wasteful expenditure to the PAC.
The third case of loss to the tone of Rs10.17 million was occurred due to unauthentic payment and discontinuing work. The loss was noticed during financial year 2012-13 in the office of Director General (DG) Provincial Housing Authority (PHA), Peshawar that housing scheme at Jarma, Kohat on the government land was launched by the local office and construction of 30 feet wide road and sewerage system was awarded to M/s Sirajul Haq & Brothers to start the work tendered cost of Rs90.31 million and completion period of 12 months.
The record showed that the contractor has executed only one item of each work and payment of Rs10.17 million was allowed. No detailed entries of the work done were found recorded by the engineer concerned except lump sum entries in the MB. The payment in absence of the detailed record entries was thus unauthentic.
Furthermore, the work was shown to have been stopped since long due to certain litigation problems, which before starting the work on the scheme were required to have been resolved. No finalization of litigation problems and payment for earth work only resulting into loss of Rs10.17 million.
The audit had attributed the occurrence to negligence of the staff.
The unauthentic payment was pointed out in January 2014 and the management stated that after the commencement of work, court stay order was imposed on all developmental activities.
In the DAC meeting held in October 2014, the representatives of the PHA were not fully prepared therefore; the chairman of DAC directed them to come up with revised working papers and replies. However, till finalization of the audit report no progress was intimated. So the audit has recommended investigation into the matter in detail giving justification before the PAC.