The Auditor General of Pakistan has reported that the Pakhtunkhwa Energy and Development Organisation (PEDO) has incurred Rs125.2 million loss to provincial exchequer by purchasing four vehicles for Rs148 million, while their actual worth is Rs22.8 million.
The Auditor General has recommended imposition of liability and recovery of the amount from the responsible PEDO officials. However, despite being discussed in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), so far no recovery has been made from the concerned authorities.
According to the 2016-17 report of the Auditor General, PEDO was awarded the contract of constructing Koto Hydel Power Project in Dir district during 2014-15 at a cost of Rs12.59 billion although according to the documents, the cost of the project was estimated to be Rs12.49 billion.
Similarly, four luxury vehicles were purchased for this project. At that time the price of one vehicle was Rs5.7 million but each vehicle was purchased at Rs35.2 million, incurring a loss of Rs125.2 million to provincial exchequer.
The Auditor General report has pointed out to the “extremely weak” financial and administrative control and recommended that those who have caused damage to the exchequer should not only be held accountable but the loss should be recovered from them.
After the report was unveiled, the KP finance department decided that the matter will be discussed in a PAC meeting. The issue was discussed in the meeting and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) held an investigation but so far no official has been brought to justice.
