The Auditor General of Pakistan has detected irregularities of around Rs 300 billion in financial record of the Punjab government for the year 2015-16, smashing all the hopes of transparency in the official business and narratives and rhetoric of the chief minister that corruption has been banished from the province. In its report on the accounts of the Punjab government for fiscal year 2015-16, the government showed ineptness in budgetary allocations and in some cases paid in excess to the contractors of the development projects. Another is the classic case of mismanagement when the government paid Rs 27 billion in excess for a development project in Lahore alone. Under the head of development funds, at least Rs 63.71 billion were paid to different contractors but record of only Rs 35.29 billion was available. In another case, Rs 5.07 billion was unaccounted for due to a non-investment in General Provident Investment Fund. The report also suggests that provincial exchequer incurred a loss of Rs 103.96 billion due to financial mismanagement in issuance and utilisation of supplementary grants. The provincial government had also failed to collect Rs 5.47 billion from autonomous bodies under the head of electricity charges. The report also adds that funds of Rs 8.66 billion were directly released to various agencies without their pre-audit through Accountant General Punjab.
According to Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment director general, the Punjab Finance Department is the most corrupt department in the province while Punjab Land Record and Excise & Taxation departments are at the second and third most corrupt departments, respectively. The total annual budget of Punjab is over Rs 2,000 billion and the lion share of the money goes to the pockets of the corrupt elements within the government departments. Unfortunately, a few black sheep in the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment has rendered the utility of the department ineffective. Unless a mechanism is devised to discourage corruption, there is no use of issuing statements. Punjab has a population of over 100 million with educated youth, fertile lands and strong industrial base and prudent policies are required to bring its GDP at par with developed countries. The report of the irregularities of Rs 300 billion should be an eye-opener for the officials who matter. This is the money which is mostly collected through indirect taxes and most of the taxpayers are from the less privileged classes.
