AGP Report Finds Rs. 730 Million Gone to Waste on Two State-Owned Buildings in the US

The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has unearthed an expenditure of approximately $7 million on two government-owned historical buildings in the United States that have gone to waste, reported Express Tribune reported.

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The two buildings in concern are located in the US capitol’s embassy. The expenditure was for the repairs and renovation. However, currently one of those buildings is in a ramshackle condition, and the other building is so devastated that it could collapse at any moment.

These buildings have held important positions for Pakistan in history. One of these, acquired in 1951, served as an embassy until 2004. The other building has been used by Pakistan’s defense and military attaches and has also served as a field office until it was abandoned in 2006. Now both these buildings are in a poor state due to the non-occupancy and lack of proper management.

Taking into account the exchange rate of Pakistani Rupee to the US Dollar at the time of the expenditure, at Rs. 104 per USD, this amount equals approximately Rs. 703 million, the AGP report has estimated. At the current exchange rate, it would be over a billion rupees.

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This expense was approved in 2010, by the then-prime minister of Pakistan, after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed that a loan of $7 million be obtained from the National Bank of Pakistan for the refurbishment of the two chancery buildings.

The restoration of both buildings was initially expected to be completed by July 2012. However, the work for one building was supposedly finished in December 2014, while the other still seems to be unfinished. The second building is also “standing on a suspension jack for which the mission is paying monthly rent,” the AGP report noted.

The report outlined that non-fulfillment of the codal formalities and non-obtainment of the required permission from local authorities concerned also resulted in delay and cost overruns. The dismantled materials, which were in fact property of the government, were not recovered either. In one case, the tendering process was not in line with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.