ISLAMABAD: The federal government in a major development on Tuesday decided to conduct a five-year audit of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF).

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has asked the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) through an official letter to urgently conduct audit of the PHF from 2009 to 2014, according to an official handout released by the Press Information Department.

The finance minister while speaking to reporters last Saturday hinted that the government would not release funds for the PHF without holding its audit. “We have sufficient funds and there is no issue for the government to release funds for the PHF but there are audit and transparency issues,” he had said.

On the other hand, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid had also said that sufficient funds had been provided to the PHF in the past years than any other sports federation but the grants were not utilised properly.

An official at the Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the government was reluctant to release funds before the audit. “We have special plan to revive hockey and we have no qualms in releasing the required funds for the PHF but there is the issue of audit, for we fear that once again the funds might be wasted,” the official said while stating that large amounts were not utilised for the revival of the national game in the past.

However, it is also a reality that the country’s hockey governing body at the moment is faced with acute shortage of funds forcing it to relocate a training camp from the federal capital to Lahore. The PHF was finally able to restart the training camp after a lapse of 10 days in Lahore, for the federation succeeded in getting financial assistance from Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the Punjab Sports Board.

It is also instructive to note that the cash-strapped PHF has been striving to get a chance to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who happens to be the PHF patron. However, the prime minister has so far been failed to spare time for the meeting from his busy schedule with four scheduled meetings between the prime minister and PHF officials being postponed so far.

The PHF officials were expecting that through meeting with the prime minister they would be able to get the required funds released to start preparation for the upcoming international events. However, all went in vain.

Also, the PHF had last year moved a summary to the prime minister for the release of a bailout package of Rs500 million but the matter remained unattended either in the IPC Ministry or the Prime Minister’s Office. However, later on in a major breakthrough the IPC recommended Rs 350 million after rejecting the PHF request for granting it Rs500 million.

On the other hand, , no special funds were released for the PHF during the tenure of the incumbent government further crippling the country’s hockey governing body financially as a result of which Hockey India jumped into the matter by offering special funds for to the PHF.

But it did not prove a boon for the PHF, for the sources said that the financial offer extended by the Indian board annoyed the federal government which decided to release funds for PHF but after conducting its audit.

Speaking to Dawn, PHF secretary Rana Mujahid said that the federation would fully cooperate with the government auditors. “We welcome this move. We are ready for audit,” maintained Mujahid who also stated that incumbent government never released a single penny in shape of special grant. “We are just getting Rs3.5 million annually from the PSB,” he further said.

When asked about over Rs1 billion released by the PPP government to the PHF, Mujahid, who also requested the government to release special funds for the survival of the national game, said that audit of that amount had already been conducted and “we will present that audit reports to the auditors.”

“We have no issue with the audit. This is a positive step but at the same time we request the government to release funds as we have to participate in several international competitions including Olympic qualifying round,” said the PHF secretary.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2015

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