Dear Friends,
The billions of rupees secret funds under the belt of various ministries have never come under the scrutiny of the government audit to determine their proper utilisation.
Defence, foreign affairs and information ministries are running billions of rupees secret funds with no knowledge of their utilisation and no details of their beneficiaries. These observations surfaced during a meeting of Monitoring and Implementation Committee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday, which took up the audit report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The discussion on secret funds kicked off when the committee took up the matter of non-credit of 135,000 pounds in the government account, which was returned back by Gellway lobbying firm to the Pakistan High Commission (PHC) in London way back in the 1990s.
The amount was paid to the firm out of the Pakistan Projection Fund but later it was returned to the PHC but never deposited in the government kitty. The officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the committee that coincidently the current Pakistani High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, was managing the affairs of the high commission during the time when this specific case occurred.
Pleading that such funds are utilised for lobbying the image of the country, Additional Secretary Naeem Khan held that such cases are of sensitive nature and any probe in it could be against national interests. "The national interest lies in the transparency of matters," Committee Chairperson Yasmeen Rahman responding to contention of the official stated. "This word national interest should be redefined," MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi quipped.
MNA Hamid Yar Hiraj said that billions of rupees are spent from the public money every year for lobbying and on account of secret funds but no tangible results have been achieved.
He pointed out that secret funds enigma is not just confined to the Ministry of Affairs but the Defence Minsitry, Inter-Services Intelligence and Information Ministry have also such funds in the name of national interest.
Hiraj deplored that it has become a "thumb of rule" in this country that a defaulter on small amounts is caught and prosecuted but there is no check on those who misuse billions of rupees in secret funds. He proposed that details about the utilisation of these secret funds should be shared with in PAC. "If sensitivities are associated with these funds then the meeting could be held in-camera to keep the secrecy intact," he suggested.
Haider Abbas Rizvi contended that the committee should be taken on board about these secret funds, whose details are kept in dark in name of national interest.
Yasmeen Rahman said that secret funds are paid from the public money and each and every fund created from public money should be audited. When asked whether any internal audit is carried out in the ministries about such secret funds, it was disclosed in the meeting that even internal audit is not done for such funds in the relevant ministries.
Defence, foreign affairs and information ministries are running billions of rupees secret funds with no knowledge of their utilisation and no details of their beneficiaries. These observations surfaced during a meeting of Monitoring and Implementation Committee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday, which took up the audit report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The discussion on secret funds kicked off when the committee took up the matter of non-credit of 135,000 pounds in the government account, which was returned back by Gellway lobbying firm to the Pakistan High Commission (PHC) in London way back in the 1990s.
The amount was paid to the firm out of the Pakistan Projection Fund but later it was returned to the PHC but never deposited in the government kitty. The officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the committee that coincidently the current Pakistani High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, was managing the affairs of the high commission during the time when this specific case occurred.
Pleading that such funds are utilised for lobbying the image of the country, Additional Secretary Naeem Khan held that such cases are of sensitive nature and any probe in it could be against national interests. "The national interest lies in the transparency of matters," Committee Chairperson Yasmeen Rahman responding to contention of the official stated. "This word national interest should be redefined," MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi quipped.
MNA Hamid Yar Hiraj said that billions of rupees are spent from the public money every year for lobbying and on account of secret funds but no tangible results have been achieved.
He pointed out that secret funds enigma is not just confined to the Ministry of Affairs but the Defence Minsitry, Inter-Services Intelligence and Information Ministry have also such funds in the name of national interest.
Hiraj deplored that it has become a "thumb of rule" in this country that a defaulter on small amounts is caught and prosecuted but there is no check on those who misuse billions of rupees in secret funds. He proposed that details about the utilisation of these secret funds should be shared with in PAC. "If sensitivities are associated with these funds then the meeting could be held in-camera to keep the secrecy intact," he suggested.
Haider Abbas Rizvi contended that the committee should be taken on board about these secret funds, whose details are kept in dark in name of national interest.
Yasmeen Rahman said that secret funds are paid from the public money and each and every fund created from public money should be audited. When asked whether any internal audit is carried out in the ministries about such secret funds, it was disclosed in the meeting that even internal audit is not done for such funds in the relevant ministries.
Regards
Shoaib Habib Memon
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