Pakistan AG flags financial irregularities worth Rs375 trillion

Pakistan’s Auditor General has pointed to serious financial mismanagement in a new report, highlighting lapses worth 375 trillion Pakistani Rupee. The report has raised concerns over weak governance and poor financial control. The biggest problems were linked to public procurement. Irregularities worth 284 trillion Pakistani Rupee were reported. Losses came from delayed projects, bad contracts, and failure to recover public money. The report said this kind of mismanagement happens regularly. It blamed poor oversight and a habit of approving extra spending without proper parliamentary checks.

Some of the key audit findings included a massive Rs284.17tr procurement-related issues, Rs85.6tr worth of defective, unexecuted and delayed civil work and Rs2.5tr worth of receivables and recovery-related issues. There were Rs1.228tr worth of non-settlement of circular debt issues, Rs958bn worth of violation of law and regulations, Rs677.5bn of weak internal control, Rs628bn of poor asset management and Rs281bn worth of poor contract management.

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) refused an audit of its accounts exposing weak regulation in the telecom sector. The report flagged overpricing in equipment purchases, excess spending by the state-owned SCO. Zong’s pending spectrum case worth 53.54 billion Pakistani Rupee was also mentioned. The report warned that without accountability from parliament and the judiciary, such audits would remain meaningless.