ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: The Directorate of Foreign Audit in its latest report has pointed out irregularities worth Rs483.531 million in the accounts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and allied wings of various ministries based in 48 missions abroad.

The report detects seven cases of “unauthorised hiring/payment of Rs233.434 million as rent of accommodation for Hujjaj in Saudi Arabia” and four cases of “irregular payments” of Rs93.749 million to the “architect and construction manager for construction of Chancery Building in Washington DC (US)”.

Moreover, the report points out 11 cases of “non-adjustment of advances/excess payment of Rs42.546 million to the government employees” and two cases of “expenditure incurred on purchase of furniture/fixture and machinery/equipment worth Rs37.035 million without the benefit of competitive rates”.

“The Directorate of Foreign Audit carried out audit of the accounts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its 13 local formations and 48 Pakistani missions abroad, including allied wings of commerce, defence, labour and manpower, information and broadcasting, science and technology and Ministry of Religious Affairs during 2004-05. The accounts audited related to the period from 2001-02 to 2002-03,” says the report.

Giving the breakup of Rs233.434 million irregularities due to unauthorised hiring/payment of rent of accommodation for Hujjaj in Saudi Arabia, the report says that “unauthorised payment of Rs215.8 million was made due to hiring of accommodation over and above the admissible lodging capacity in Makkah; Rs7.231 million on account of capacity of hired buildings utilised for medical mission; Rs4.251 million was paid advanced rent for unauthorised hiring of accommodation; Rs2.454 million as excess deduction of rent from Hujjaj; non-recovery of Rs1.527 million rent for the space provided to Maktabs and unauthorised payment of Rs1.419 million of daily allowance to medical mission and seasonal staff.”

Highlighting irregularities in the construction of Chancery Building in Washington, the report says the architectural contract for the building was awarded by the embassy to M/S DMJM for $925,000 in violation of the rules as tenders were not called for and no pre-qualification of architects was done by the Pakistani embassy to have the benefit competitive rates and to select the appropriate architect.

Similarly, the reports points out that Pakistan’s embassy awarded a contract to M/S Washington Group Sales Inc. for supply of furniture for $469.713 million (Rs27.26 million). “It was observed that the payment was made out of project money in a non- transparent manner,” the report says, adding that in contravention of the laid down procedures, the embassy incurred the expenditure on replacement of furniture without observing the rules and without seeking the ministry’s approval.

Moreover, the report says, “the embassy of Pakistan in Washington while approving the design of the Chancery building did not consider some important features which were included at a subsequent stage. This act of the management not only increased the cost but also resulted in additional fees of $360,215 and $75,296 to the architect and construction manager, respectively.”

According to the report, the important features which were not included in the original design but were later on included were fencing, surveillance camera, intercoms, sprinkler fire protection system, fire alarm system and telephone/data system.

“The approval for these additional features was not obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says the report, adding: “Had the above features/aspects been taken into consideration at the time of the initial designing of the project, the embassy would have saved $435,511 as additional fees of architect and construction manager.