ISLAMABAD: “The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has no mandate to conduct an audit for us while the Higher Education Commission (HEC) with the help of some other elements are trying to harm us,” said National Testing Service (NTS) Chief Operating Officer Dr Sherzada Khan on Friday.
In following with the recent special audit observations for the NTS by the AGP, Dr. Sherzada held a presser and made it clear that as the NTS was a public sector and a non-profit organisation, so the AGP had no legal authority for conduction of tests for such kinds of audit. He said that the NTS was registered with the Security Exchange Commission (SECP) and it submitted the complete details of NTS’ all kinds of assets, external and internal, with the SECP.
Recently, the AGP in its special audit report found several discrepancies in the operational system of the NTS. The report revealed that the NTS was functioning without rules, policies, corporate strategy and organised objectives that caused misuse of funds, misappropriation of billions of rupees and even raised questions over its legality. The AGP also observed the irregular and unauthorised payments made against advertising charges of Rs 235 million to selected firms without open a competition while the advertising cost was being charged from candidates appearing in tests and admission.
The official was asked as to why he allowed the AGP to audit if it was not a public sector institution. Dr Sherzada said the NTS with the consultation of its Board of Director (BOD) and some legal experts, decided to allow the audit.
“The NTS management did not want to conceal anything because there is nothing going wrong”, he claimed adding that moreover they wished to avert the occurrence of an undue controversy.
The COO further disclosed that the HEC was a respectful institution but it had no mandate to intervene in such kinds of jobs as they want to do, adding that in 2003 the Commission itself had given the approval for establishment of the NTS, “but all of a sudden it went against us and nowadays the HEC is trying to harm the NTS through every possible means,” he said.
The special audit which compelled the COO to speak on record, was conducted at the request of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology’s (CIIT) through the Higher Education Commission (HEC). It was the first audit of the NTS by the AGP since its inception in 2003.
In reply to a question whether the NTS management would approach the court against the AGP and the HEC or not, as according to him both institutions were turned over to the law, Dr Sherzada said so far it had no such intentions. He, however, said “the AGP after concluding the report, asked us for compiling any sort of reservation regarding this, adding that we have submitted a comprehensive reply with the AGP”. Dr Sherzada said the AGP had the right to ask any kind of query because they conducted the audit but writing of letters from the HEC was illogical, illegal as well as unethical.
He claimed, “Since the AGP observations the Commission was dictatorially going to write to us for submission of a reply to the HEC regarding the audit report.”
“We did not reply to the HEC letters because as per law the NTS is not bound to do so,” he explained.
It is pertinent to mention here that the NTS was established in 2003. Initially, it was a project of yjr COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) with the aim to conduct admissions tests for the students who desired to get enrolled with the CIIT. Now, according to Dr Sherzada, it has been converted to an autonomous company. The audit observed that the NTS was established as a project of the CIIT without obtaining the approval of the board of governors (BoG) and even the ordinance of the CIIT did not allow the establishment of such a company.
The audit also pointed out that the formation of a company by the employees of the CIIT was irregular and unauthorised.