Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Rangers have outsourced the security of the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) sites in Sindh and Punjab to two private companies, audit report revealed Wednesday, mentioning that the government is bearing the cost of the contract through the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources.

The companies that have been given the contract to protect sites include M/s Mehmood & Brothers and M/s Barki Traders.

In this respect, a sum of Rs.102.417 million had been paid to the Pakistan Rangers (Punjab and Sindh), which is also without supporting documents, the report further revealed.

However, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) directed the ministry to submit a complete record of mentioned payments.

The matter came to the limelight when a PAC meeting, chaired by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Khurshid Shah, was reviewing a 2016 audit of the ministry.

The report said that Rs 48m was paid to the Sindh Rangers whereas Rs 54m was paid to the Punjab Rangers on the basis of a 2003 agreement signed between the ministry and the Rangers.

The report added that the Punjab Rangers had paid rent for 20 cars from a company named M/S Barki Traders.

The report noted that all payments were made “on the basis of vouched account submitted by Pakistan Rangers (Sindh and Punjab) for security duty”.

A scrutiny of the ‘vouched accounts’ revealed that the “payments were made on the basis of an agreement between the Pakistan Rangers and the Ministry of Petroleum but neither a copy of the contract nor concurrence to the contract by the Ministry of Finance was provided”.

According to a summary submitted by the Petroleum Ministry to the prime minister of Pakistan referred in MNPR U O No G(4)/2003, “The current arrangement may not continue indefinitely, especially in view of the expenses involved and apparent distraction of agencies from their core functions. However, it may continue on selective sites to be identified by the companies in consultation with the relevant security agencies.”

“The ministry had paid a bill of M/S Mehmood and Brothers presented by the Pakistan Rangers Sindh. However, the record relating to award of the contract to the contractor and procurement process followed was not provided to audit despite requests. The Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) had also not provided these details/documents during their audit),” the report highlighted.

Similarly, “The ministry had paid a bill of M/S Barki Traders presented by the Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) for hiring of 20 vehicles. However, the procurement process followed for such services had not been shared with the audit,” it said.

The report said that there was also no recorded evidence of income tax deductions for hiring of vehicles and other charges.

“In the absence of the record, the authenticity of expenditures could not be ascertained,” the report added.

During the course of the meeting, audit officials and the ministry’s secretary traded barbs as audit officials constantly blamed the latter and his subordinates for lack of interest in the matters related to finances.

The petroleum secretary, however, rejected the allegations, saying that the meetings were held regularly and record was furnished.

Chief Financial Officer Masood Abbas Rizvi chimed in to rescue the secretary, saying had there been any legal lacuna in release of payments then the accountant general should have pointed out at that time because issuance of payment is his jurisdiction.

Published in Daily Times, October 26^th 2017.