Major structural problems in management of public money: Secretary Finance

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting held on Wednesday saw admittance by Secretary Finance Arif Khan that serious structural problems are present in the management of public money.

Mr Khan apprised PAC that out of Rs1,001 billion development budget allotted, Rs750 billion would be only spent because of the restricted ability of the government machinery, reported Dawn.

Answering the audit objections raised by the Ministry of Finance, Mr Khan shared approximately Rs1.8 trillion of the state institutions and various ministries were invested in banks.

He added the banks were utilizing these deposits to give loans to the government and generating a significant markup and reiterated the structural flaws in the system require changing.

A separate audit objection was raised during the PAC meeting talked about the finance ministry shifting an unutilized amount of Rs7.09 billion in other accounts of the central bank in FY 2015-16 hadn’t still been declared.

However, Mr Khan was unable to provide an appropriate response to this question but officials of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) highlighted this undisclosed amount was to be categorized as lapse amount.

It added go-ahead of the parliament should have been sought for its use in the next year.