Islamabad: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered that payment of house rent should be stopped to personnel of the National Highway and Motorway Police other than the prescribed stations and called for the recovery of Rs55.23 million paid over time.
The committee also said that responsibility should be fixed within 15 days on the officers behind the payment of house rent instead of housing allowance.
The orders were given in a meeting of the committee, chaired by opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah, which discussed related audit paras here on Tuesday.
The auditors were of the view that the employees of motorway police N-5 (North), office of the deputy inspector general, Quetta and Karachi, who were not residing at the prescribed stations (Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta), drew house rent during financial years 2008-09 and 2009-10.
The auditors considered the payment, amounting to Rs55.23 million, inadmissible under the rules.
“There should be a thorough inquiry within 15 days and responsibility should be fixed,” directed the PAC chairman to Communication Secretary Shahid Ashraf Tarar, who is also the Principal Accounting Officer.
Tarar asked the chairman to refer the matter to the Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) for resolution, but the request was turned down. “If we send such issues to DAC, then it means that we are surrendering our powers to someone else,” the chairman said.
According to a previous DAC observation, the Ministry of Communication issued instructions on July 6, 2010 for stopping payment of house rent to other specified stations and making the recovery. In response, the employees of motorway police filed a writ petition in the Sindh High Court, Sukkur bench, which on September 24, 2012 set aside the ministry’s order.
After five months, the ministry went to the Supreme Court on March 7, 2013, but the court dismissed the plea, saying no justification was given for the delay in filing the petition.
The audit paras also said there was lapse on the part of the ministry because it initially did not produce a notification of the Finance Division about the prescribed stations and then it did not file on time the appeal in the apex court.
It was recommended that an investigation should be undertaken to fix the responsibility for negligence and connivance pertaining to the case before the Sindh High Court and delay in filing the case in the Supreme Court.
M-10 project
In another case, PAC called for a probe and identifying the people responsible for the award of a contract for additional works worth Rs618.04 million in Peshawar without inviting tenders.
The auditors observed that the general manager of Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway Project (M-10) awarded the contract for additional works on the NHA Complex Building, Toll Plazas and interchanges to a contractor without floating tenders and it resulted in a loss of Rs618.04 million to the national exchequer.
Replying, the National Highway Authority said according to clause 52 of the contract, any addition or deduction exceeding 15% of the contract price required re-fixing of the agreed rate. A 54% reduction occurred in the contract price for the contractor, who lodged a claim of Rs496.10 million against the authority.
It said in order to compensate the contractor, additional works were awarded with approval of the NHA executive board.
“This is an out of way favour to the contractor in violation of all rules,” remarked PAC Chairman Shah and called for holding a probe.
