Rs 40b recovery made on audit reports every year: AGP Rana Asad Amin

Lahore: Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Rana Asad Amin Monday said that Rs 40 billion recovery was made every year through audit reports about irregularities in public sector funds/departments.

He disclosed this while talking to media persons as well as in his address at a conference on “Public Sector Financial Management” organized by Department of Auditor General of Pakistan at a local Hotel.

Rana Asad claimed that Audit Department’s annual expenditure was only Rs 3 billion and its recovery rate was very high. With the fast changing world, the importance of forensic audit had increased manifolds, and corruption ratio could be curbed easily if an agreement/MoU reached between the NAB and the Audit Department, he added.

The AGP said that World Bank was now ready to provide Rs one billion financial assistant to bring improvements in the audit system of Pakistan.The AGP also welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Pakistan Institute of Public Finance Accounts (PIPFA) and Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountancy UK (CIPFA).

He expressed the hope that this initiative would improve both the PIPFA performance as well as Audit Department and accountancy system of the country. It is to mention that Department of Auditor General of Pakistan is also the sponsoring body of the PIPFA.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the PIPFA President Muhammad Maqbool highlighted the objectives of the conference and said the PIPFA and CIPFA agreement would help control irregularities in the public sector.
In the second session of the conference, Additional Finance Secretary Dr Shujaat said that at present the rate of debt against GDP was 62 percent that would be brought down to 57 percent. He added that due to effective economic reforms of the present government, the budget deficit reduced in two years to 5.4 percent from 8 percent and a strategy had also been evolved to decrease it further up to 3.5 percent by 2017.
On this occasion, former finance minister Dr. Salman Shah said that keeping in view the increasing population especially the youth, Pakistan needed to create three million new jobs every year for which the GDP growth rate should range between 8 to 9 percent. Therefore, he added, the government should establish more and more industrial units and make planning in such a manner that reduced unemployment and poverty.
While, the former FBR chairman Abdul Yosaf stressed the need for simplifying the process of income tax, and formulation of policies which increased the direct taxes and reduced indirect taxes.