Foreign ministry told to tighten accounting rules
ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Wednesday criticised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for having no control over funds management and lax accounting procedures, instructing its new secretary Asim Iftikhar Ahmad to streamline and tighten accounting procedures and make rules and share them with the committee. The directive came after the Public Accounts Committee, while discussing audit…
The parliamentary committee criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for lacking control over funds management and lax accounting procedures. The Public Accounts Committee expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Federal Investigation Agency for failing to recover the embezzled amount six years after registering a case against ex-accountant Muhammad Sulaiman Qureshi in Pakistan.
Another accountant misappropriated funds while posted in the Pakistan embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Audit officials were concerned that the misappropriated public money had not been recovered from the accountant, who was even reinstated after being dismissed from service. The committee also raised concerns over the unjustified retention of a heavy balance by the Higher Education Commission and unauthorized borrowing of funds from the commission's account in the US.
The Pakistani mission in Dhaka, Bangladesh, had a $1.143m idle in an unauthorised suspense account, violating rules requiring settlement of payments at the earliest. The committee referred the matter to the departmental accounts committee.
Written by urgent.news from Dawn's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
