PESHAWAR: For the first time in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a ruling party, which has been reelected for the second consecutive term, will defend itself over the Auditor General of Pakistan’s objections about three of its controversial flagship projects initiated during the first tenure.

The matter of scrutiny in case of such audit objections traditionally falls to a party in opposition that comes to power when a government’s term ends after five years, lending the exercise a semblance of independence and fairness.

Three reports from the AGP, a constitutional body, related to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s three mega projects initiated during its previous tenure in KP were tabled in the provincial assembly last week (Dec 4).

The projects in question are the Billion Tree Tsunami, Bus Rapid Transit, and the now defunct Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission.

Opposition says panel’s makeup tipped in favour of govt as it has most members from ruling PTI including speaker

The reports that have now become property of the provincial assembly could be taken up by the Public Accounts Committee. Even though it is not binding on the committee to do so on a specific date, what makes the matter highly controversial is that the chairman of the PAC is the speaker of the provincial assembly, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani. He served as an adviser to the chief minister on higher education and information during the previous term of the PTI government (2013-18).

“It is a crucial audit for the reason that the ruling party would be defending itself before a body headed by one of its own members,” said source in the assembly secretariat.

“Considering that, independence of the chairman and the members of the ruling party, who are also part of the PAC, becomes doubtful. How could one hope then that the exercise would remain fair and objective?”

All three projects – the Billion Tree Tsunami, BRT and the KP Ehtesab Commission – remain the most politicized and controversial of PTI’s initiatives. Cases and investigations into the projects have been initiated by the National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Investigation Agency and the upper courts.

The Billion Tree Tsunami and the KP Ehtesab Commission were the brainchildren of Prime Minister Imran Khan whereas the BRT was championed by Pervez Khattak, former chief minister KP. The AGP reports have serious objections against all three projects.

“The KP Ehtesab Commission badly failed in establishing congenial atmosphere to control corruption, corrupt practices and misuse of power/authority with a view to create transparency and merit in the province,” said the AG’s report Special Study Report on Account of Ehtesab Commission.

Among the reasons cited for failure to do so, the report mentioned poor performance of the internal monitoring and public complaint wing, lack of expertise in the investigation process and poor performance or the prosecution wing.

“Out of the 29 filed references, only one case was decided by the Ehtesab Court that clearly shows poor professional attitude of the prosecutor general and his team…despite the fact that they were paid handsome salaries,” said the report about an initiative that cost the exchequer Rs 639.553 million between FY2014-2015 to FY2017-2018.

Performance audit of the Peshawar BRT pointed out those frequent changes in project design cost the province Rs 10.465 billion. The audit also unearthed unauthorized payment of Rs 28 million to the several government officials in lieu of BRT allowance; however, those who received these payments were not entitled to receive the money in line with project PC-1 or were paid in excess of post provided in the project documents.

In addition, an amount of Rs54.89 million cost of dismantled material was also not recovered from the project contractors. TransPeshawar, the operator of the BRT service paid salaries amounting to Rs95 million to 32 of its employees without approved pay structure.

Like Ehtesab Commission and BRT, the AGP report also carries serious audit paras about the multibillion rupees tsunami afforestation programme under which the provincial government claimed one billion saplings across the province. The cost of the project was over Rs19 billion which was launched in 2014.

Interestingly the government blocked several attempts of the opposition in the provincial assembly which was calling for probe by a parliamentary committee in the project. The audit report pointed out lack of transparency in allotment of nurseries to the private growers and heavy financial loss due to higher rates claimed for seedlings in the departmental nurseries.

“According to the PC-1, the rate of Rs9 per plant will be paid to the private grower for bare rooted nursery. However the same bare rooted plant grown in the departmental nursery Rs16.63 per plant was allowed,” said the report.

While brushing aside the opposition’s objection against the stewardship of public accounts committee by a PTI figure, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani said in assembly session on December 4 said that the PAC was an open forum, with members from the government and the opposition. He said he didn’t choose to be the chairman of the PAC but the position was entrusted to him under the assembly’s rules of business.

However, members of the opposition remain wary of the fact that the committee is headed by a figure whose loyalties lie with the ruling PTI.

“With more membership from the PTI than the opposition, the committee’s makeup is tipped in favour of the government,” said a committee member from the opposition who didn’t want to be named.

“Unlike the previous audit reports, this one is about flagship projects that the PTI has been bending over backwards to defend in the face of public scrutiny. We don’t expect that the committee would act differently?”

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2020