The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the 9th Jatiyo Sangsad (JS) has set new records, both in resolving audit objections and realisation of fund, a top-level PAC source said.
Up to September last, the JS body settled a total of 4,113 audit objections, raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) office, involving Tk 150.96 billion.
As a result, the CAG office was able to recover Tk 13.96 billion and adjust Tk 25.66 billion.
PAC chairman M A Mannan told the FE Friday that they continued emphasising the settlement of audit objections in a bid to help prevent corruption.
"We tried our level best to resolve the maximum number of audit objections and integrate all the relevant departments with the process," he said.
The PAC of the 9th JS arranged 262 meetings from February 18, 2009 to September 19, 2013, which was up by 43 from the aggregate number of meetings, held by all the previous PACs of the JS (1st to 8th), Mr Mannan mentioned.
A total of 219 meetings were held by the JS PACs until the 8th parliament, he said.
The PAC chairman said the PAC of the 8th parliament arranged only 46 meetings and resolved less than one third audit objections of the 9th PAC.
The 8th parliament PAC recovered only Tk 877 million and adjusted Tk 1.61 billion. The 7th parliament PAC realised Tk 2.27 billion and recovered Tk 9.29 billion, he said.
The 1st parliament PAC sat only for three times in its more that two and a half years tenure, the 2nd parliament PAC organised nine meetings, the PAC of the 3rd parliament did not hold any meeting, the 4th parliament PAC organised six, the 5th parliament PAC 52, the PAC of the 6th parliament nil, the 7th parliament PAC 103, and the 8th Parliament PAC 46.
According to the latest report, the PAC of the 9th parliament discussed a total of 6,740 reports and resolved 4,113 reports. From September 2012 to September 19, 2013, it discussed 1,133 audit objections in 56 meetings. Among them, 925 reports were resolved, and the PAC gave specific recommendations to 207 audit objections.
According to a PAC report, about 869,000 audit observations remained unsettled from 1971 to June 30, 2013, and the total amount involved with these unsettled audits is about Tk 5,309.89 billion.
Different local and international organisations, including the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), underscored the need for resolving the unsettled audit objections. Otherwise, this phenomenon will encourage corruption, they opined.
TIB executive director Dr Iftekhruzzaman hailed the PAC and the CAG office for their active roles during the last few years in resolving the audit objections.
"The combined efforts of the PAC and the CAG office accelerated the process of resolving audit objections. We saw many important decisions in this time," he said.
Iftekhruzzaman, however, raised question over some decisions regarding resolving audit objections, as 'conflict of interest' of some of the PAC members was behind those decisions.
He said the PAC and the CAG office should have strong connections with some other relevant organisations, like - the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the National Board of Revenue (NBR), to achieve better result.
The PAC chairman said the CAG office is now more active than previous time, as some development activities have been implemented to bring dynamism in the department.
"We were successful due to the help of audit officials. The CAG office also facilitated us," he said.
M A Mannan, however, expressed his disappointment over the slow pace in taking punitive measures against corrupt officials.
"We saw slackness by the departments concerned in implementing the PAC recommendations, which is still a bar to eradicate widespread corruption from the country," he added.
