Public Accounts Committee (PAC), directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to recover Rs 2.2 million from a former minister and employees of the commerce ministry for the unauthorized use of 22 telephone connections.
During the audit of accounts at the commerce ministry, the office of the auditor general discovered 22 unauthorized telephone connections in fiscal years 2015-16 and 2017-18.
The commerce secretary said that the minister himself and other ministry officials had used these telephone lines within prescribed limits.
Noor Alam Khan, chairman of PAC, directed his staff towards producing the “Federal Ministers and Ministers of State (Salaries, Allowances, and Privileges) Act, 1975”.
Section 10A of this act says:
A minister shall be entitled to a telephone to be installed at his residence at government expense and shall be exempted from payment of its rental and charges of calls made there from within the country.
After Mr. Khan was not satisfied with the secretary’s answers, Khan asked for Rs. 2.2 million to be recovered from the officials. He instructed the FIA to recover the amount and register FIRs in case of failure.
Peshawar Expo Center
The PAC also directed the commerce ministry to share the inquiry regarding illegal award work of Rs. 191.5 million in constructing the Peshawar Expo Center. The audit revealed that contracts were awarded by the ministry for violating procurement rules.
The commerce secretary informed the committee that an in-depth inquiry had been conducted and that the responsibility for these findings had been transferred to the officials.
The PAC also examined the financial affairs of Pakistan’s State Life Insurance Corporation and found that the PTI government’s flagship project ‘Health Card,’ might have been counterproductive to the insurance company.
