An audit of the Lahore Press Information Department for 2010-12 has detected unauthorised spending of Rs9.534 million.
Most of this spending came in the form of irregular promotions and hiring, and in the misuse of official vehicles, according to the report, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune. The audit was conducted by the Lahore sub office of the federal government’s Directorate General for Audits.
The report recommends that Rs267,000 be recovered from two deputy directors, Fatima Sheikh and Ghazala Mujahid, and an information officer, Nazia, for getting office vehicles to transport them between home and office, even though they were paid conveyance allowances.
Another employee was found to have tampered with the speedometer on his motorbike in order to falsely claim Rs327,000 in fuel expenses and on repair costs. The report declared the withdrawal of another Rs565,000 for vehicle repair to be ‘doubtful’.
The auditors recommended that Rs428,000 be recovered from the director, Ejaz Hussain, for irregular use of an official vehicle. They also recommended that Rs1.069 million be recovered over the misuse of five vehicles. The vehicles were reported to have covered a distance of 21,377 kilometres in the two years, but the journeys were not recorded in the movement register, nor were requisition slips produced for the auditors.
The audit report found an excessive withdrawal of Rs134,000 for fuel. A difference of Rs244,000 was found between the expenditure statement and budget control register. The audit recommended an investigation into the discrepancy. An expense of Rs237,000 on the appointment of drivers to vacancies created as regular drivers were on leave was found to be irregular.
The appointment of one driver, Badar Munir, was declared illegal as he was also serving at the time in Sui Northern Gas Pipelines. The auditors recommended that Rs629,000 paid to him in salaries be recovered.
Six department officers were paid Rs2.108 million as advances in an irregular and unsecured manner, while Rs1.374 million was paid to five officers for rent without due process. The audit recommended that Rs105,000 be recovered from four officers who had phone lines installed at their residences, though they were not entitled to them. An expense of Rs318,000 on newspapers by the drawing and disbursement [officer was also found to be suspect.
An irregular payment of Rs495,000 was made for rent of office buildings in Gulberg and Jail Road. Discrepancies were also detected in a Rs626,000 withdrawal for purchase of stock, and another Rs262,000 withdrawn from the government accounts illegally.
The auditors found that an official named Muhammad Saleem had been promoted irregularly. Saleem was appointed as a lower division clerk in BPS-5 in 1972. His education was up to matriculation, but he was later appointed as assistant in BPS-11, a post meant for BA graduates. He was later promoted to accountant in BPS-14, to superintendent in BPS-16 in 2006, and to assistant administrative officer, also in BPS-16, in 2011. The audit report said that Saleem had been promoted in violation of Establishment Division rules and had received undue benefits in the form of pay and allowances amounting to Rs220,000. It pointed out that his irregular appointment and promotion had been noted in an audit of 1993-96. It recommended that the money be recovered from him before he retires.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2013.