LAHORE: A report by the auditor general of Pakistan has exposed the hollow claims of good governance in Punjab, as it found misappropriation of more than Rs 1.274 billion by the Punjab Agriculture Department. The auditor general’s report disclosed that the Agriculture Department officials had remained engaged in filling their bags instead of doing something for the development in the field of agriculture. According to details, the auditor general revealed in his report that there was no record of Rs 274.2 million drawn from the provincial treasury, while agricultural machinery worth Rs 300 million was purchased by violating the PPA rules. The audit report disclosed that even the Agriculture Department land was given on lease but an amount of Rs 624.6 million was not recovered from the leasee (tenants). The department did not get its vehicle repaired and ultimately these became useless and rusty, which caused a loss of Rs 47,978,000. An amount of Rs 169,900,000 due from the Agriculture Department employees was not recovered from them. According to the report, one Iftikhar Ahmed Saeed secured a job as lecturer at the Agricultural University, Faisalabad on the basis of fake degrees. The department after the removal of Iftikhar Ahmed Saeed had not recovered from him Rs 1.6 million which he had drawn as salary. Moreover, an amount of Rs 3.4 million was illegally paid as conveyance allowance to the officers who already had government vehicles. The officers had illegally occupied the government residences and thus caused a loss of more than Rs 3 million to the provincial treasury. The Agriculture Department was also accused of disbursing Rs 2.7 million. Even without approval from the forum concerned, six persons were appointed as faculty member of Mehr Ali Shah University, Rawalpindi. The auditor general’s report further disclosed that in violation of the rules 31, retired employees had been reappointed. The report further stated that no cultivation was done on the department’s agriculture land, which caused a loss of Rs 0.686 million. Two vehicles worth Rs 650,000 were stolen from the office, but the departmental took no action. When Daily Times contacted Agriculture Department spokesperson Murtaza Abbas for comments, he showed his inability to do so. He saved his skin by uttering that there were many sub-departments and each one had its own head and those were the ones who could give a reply. When asked that the audit report had identified Rs 22 million misappropriation in his information department, Murtaza Abbas did not even have a reasonable answer. The tragedy is, the auditor general’s report has been sent to all the high officials of the Punjab government, but so far no action was taken against any officer. Published in Daily Times, December 23rd 2017.