ISLAMABAD: In yet another shocking revelation, the Auditor General of Pakistan said in its annual report for the year 2015-16 that the federal government spent more than Rs 242.445 billion in excess of the budgetary allocations, and the Finance Ministry made payments without authorisation, which was against the constitution.
According to the report regarding the federal government’s accounts of the last fiscal year, the government spent more than Rs 178.336 billion to meet the current expenditure, while over Rs 64 billion were spent on development expenditure incurred during FY 2014-15. According to rules, the management of the Accountant General Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) was not authorised to make payments without availability of budget.
The report stated that the expenditure in excess of budgetary allocation indicated the “disregard for the financial system” laid down in the constitution, which required that the expenditure “may be incurred only after approval” of the competent forum. On this, the Finance Ministry replied that these payments were made to meet the expenditure of employees, which was obligatory and in order to avoid hardships to the employees.