LAHORE, March 12: Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has said Punjab is ready to take over the departments that will come under its control after the removal of the Concurrent List.

Speaking at a conference on “Public Sector Accounting in Pakistan” organised by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) here on Saturday, he said the country had long been experiencing recession as “our cash-strapped status caused by massive national debt kept our economy at ebb”.

He further said: “Though we could avoid this situation by increasing revenues and exports, things have never gone the way we have been planning. The ground reality is that we usually find it difficult to generate enough revenue and increase exports whereas the expenditure position has all along seen inflationary trend.”

The law minister said everyone knew that debt servicing consumed a whopping share of the country's current revenues. He said all segments of society should play their role in elimination of terrorism and extremism.

Presenting a paper, Usman Khan, deputy auditor general, said the Department of Auditor General remained traditionally responsible for both accounting and auditing in the public sector till 2001, when these functions were separated through creation of Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

He said the auditor general was performing audit function besides prescribing principles and methods of maintaining accounts according to his constitutional mandate.

ICMAP President Hasan A. Bilgrami said the institute had been organising seminars and conferences on crucial issues. “I am delighted to say that this year our seminar and conference committee has chosen the topic of public sector accounting in Pakistan,” he said.

Accounting and Audit expert Hanif Ajari, in his paper, said that in response to pressure from both citizens and elected officials to demonstrate their effectiveness and efficiency in delivering value, public service organisations globally were mandated to increase their focus on performance management.

He said a report presented in April 2009 encouraged the government of Pakistan to emulate the private sector in seeking greater efficiencies in the way that it purchases and provides services.

He said one of the findings highlighted in the report was related to the dire need to build upon existing forms of accountability and introduce measures to improve performance management so as to have a good data and information.

Guest speaker Sajjad Ahmad said Pakistan's tax setup was more pro-rich than pro-poor. Resultantly, the rich paid less tax than they should and the poor were compelled to pay taxes in spite of the fact that they had a very low capacity to pay.