ISLAMABAD: Possibly annoyed over dismal performance of the Pakistan team in international tournaments, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance summoned on Thursday audit reports of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The committee met in the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Saleem Mandviwala, who asked the Auditor General of Pakistan to submit the PCB’s audit reports for the last five years.

The matter was raised by Senator Mohsin Leghari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, who accused the PCB of gross mismanagement and said: “It is becoming a white elephant and is merely wasting public money.”

His remarks were endorsed by the other members and Mr Mandviwala observed that PCB was among the few departments that were either not getting their accounts audited or did not share the audit reports with the authorities.

He instructed the auditor general to submit the PCB’s audit reports to the committee and said: “Everybody will like to know how much the nation is spending on them.”

The Deputy Auditor General told the committee that there were about 20 institutions which were reluctant to get their accounts audited.

He said his office lacked the capacity to audit accounts of all the institutions and only selected departments had been earmarked for regular audits. He added that the National Bank of Pakistan had obtained a stay order from court against the audit.

An additional secretary of finance ministry said the ministry was busy in formulating a mechanism for resolving the issue in accordance with instructions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, officials of the finance ministry objected to a recent amendment made in rules by the Senate that made it mandatory for them to present details of their ministry’s budget before the committee.

The committee, under rule 166(4) of the Rule of Procedures and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012, had summoned a ministry official to get a briefing on the ministry’s budgetary allocations and its utilisation along with those of its attached departments.

Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood objected to this and said the rules should be read in front of them as they were not aware of them. He added that the upper house of parliament was not authorised to scrutinise the money bill.

“The architects of the 1973 constitutions placed some restrictions, as the Senate’s approval is not required for the money bill,” he said, adding that it was responsibility of the National Assembly to approve the bill.

He said the rules that violated the Constitution could not be formulated. He also said the matter should be taken up with chairman of the Senate.

Senator Mandviwala supported the stance of Dr Masood over the issue.

However, the committee was later briefed on the expenditures made by the ministry and its attached departments during the current fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2016