City govt working without audit officer for years

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* District Officer Accounts seat lying vacant since 2001

By Irfan Aligi

KARACHI: The City District Government Karachi (CDGK), which is passing through its worst ever financial crunch, has also been suffering because of lack of certain key posts essential to ensure transparency in use of public money.

The key post of district officer (DO)-Accounts in the CDGK has remained vacant since the day one of devolution plan that was executed through the promulgation of Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO)-2001.

Nobody bothered to appoint an officer to this post during the tenures of two elected city governments.

The sources said that it was the responsibility of Sindh government to ensure placement of the DO-Accounts in the CDGK. It was mandatory for the Sindh Accountant General (AG) to create a counter/office at the CDGK and place an officer alongwith the required personnel for carrying out the pre-audit of all the bills, accounts and financial matters, but the Sindh AG has yet to do this, said the sources.

Instead, CDGK F&P had created the post of the Assistant Director Local Fund Audit (ADLFA) to carry out pre-audit of accounts but the ministry of finance did not accept any pre-audit report as legal valid document on the grounds that the ADLFA did not have any legal powers to conduct the pre-audit procedures, said the sources.

The ADLFA, however, could perform pre-audit of the town municipal administrations but he was at the same time carrying out the pre-audit of the CDGK, which was a violation of the SLGO-2001.

He could not fulfill the requirements for transparency and accountability because of internal influences, sources said.

The sources said that the previous City Council of the CDGK had passed countless resolutions, but none of them demanded that the provincial authorities place a DO-Accounts, perhaps due to the fact that the position belonged to the provincial government and the city government's liberty as regards financial matters could have been jeopardized by this.

The sources said that the CDGK had artificially filled the gap by the placement of a DO-Accounts from the CDGK F&P, who performed in a professional manner, which led the former city nazim to give him the dual charge of the CDGK F&P executive district officer (EDO).

The sources said that the rivalry between F&P EDO and the Executive Director Finance (EDF) had further worsened the situation. The sources confirmed that the EDF has been rendered as "good-for-nothing", and he has been denied access to cash-flow positions.

The EDF was isolated and forced to take medical leave from Jul 26 to Aug 25. He was forced to extend his leave for 10 more days because nobody cooperated with him when he returned to work on August 24.

The seat of the DO-Accounts has thus been lying vacant for one month while clerks were trying to fill the gap.

The sources said that the EDO F&P believed the EDF had hatched a conspiracy to become EDO during the tenure of previous elected CDGK.

Sources in the CDGK Finance and Planning Department told Daily Times that there was no proper maintenance and use of funds available because of lack of audit. This could only happen if the audit of accounts was done by an officer of sound experience and credibility, they said.