It’s a bit rich of the federal cabinet to reject the Auditor General of Pakistan’s (AGP’s) report on Covid funding without ordering a thorough probe into the lapses uncovered in it and waiting for the result, especially since it was the finance ministry that released it. If the AGP’s findings are to be trusted, which the government obviously doesn’t, there were Rs40 billion worth of irregularities in official expenditure incurred on Covid-19 because of things like ‘mis-procurement, payments to ineligible beneficiaries, cash withdrawal through fake biometrics, procurement of substandard goods by Utility Stores Corporation (USC)’, etc. It’s also a matter of significant concern that the government did what it could to keep this report from being released, including flatly refusing to share its contents with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and only very reluctantly handed it over after the global lender included it in its list of mandatory ‘prior actions’ for reviving the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). USC has turned out to be among the biggest culprits with irregularities of up to Rs5.24 billion in the procurement of sugar, ghee and wheat flour for the most marginalized segments of society during the lockdown, including the purchase of substandard ghee and oil which the Punjab government had ruled unfit for human consumption. These are very serious findings yet so lengthy is the list of blunders, mistakes and also what seems like deliberate corruption that these only scratch the surface. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for example – the country’s main coordinating agency for relief activities – spent only Rs22.8b of the Rs33.3 billion allotted to it, and must also answer to charges of ‘instances of mis-procurement, weak contract management, delays in delivery, improper storage management, etc. The list goes on, revealing unacceptable and unforgivable lapses running into tens of billions of rupees. The prime minister himself made passionate appeals against a complete lockdown, even when it was fast becoming the norm all over the world, simply to protect the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable segments of society right at the bottom of the food chain. But now the government’s own audit has revealed a severe, and at some points even deliberate, breakdown of the official machinery that kept aid from reaching its target audience and milked the exchequer in excess of Rs40 billion. Instead of trying to brush this embarrassment under the carpet, the government must first explain why it refused to make these details public all these months and then take action against all those responsible for these oversights and crimes. *