No record of gifts received by Aziz, Musharraf in 2006-07

[LRE]

* Only one list of gifts prepared for entire year
* AGP report says gifts given to Pakistani officials are assets of the government

ISLAMABAD: The government did not maintain a record of ‘expensive gifts’ received by former president Pervez Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and other dignitaries in 2006-07, according to an annual report by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP).

The audit report for 2007-08 shows that the Cabinet Division had not been provided appropriate information on the expensive gifts the officials received over the year.

According to government rules, it is the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry’s chief of protocol for visiting dignitaries and foreign delegations; the Foreign Ministry; or the recipient’s representative attached to a visiting dignitary or a foreign delegation to supply to the Cabinet Division a list of the gifts received along with the names of the recipients.

If delegations or visiting dignitaries are not accompanied by the Foreign Ministry’s chief of protocol or his/her representative, the ministry sponsoring the visit is responsible for providing the details to the Cabinet Division. And when Pakistani delegations or dignitaries go abroad, it is the responsibility of the Pakistani ambassador or the head of the Pakistani mission in that country to report the receipt of gifts through the Foreign Ministry.

The AGP’s latest report says that gifts given to Pakistani delegations during foreign visits are ‘assets of the government’.

The Cabinet Division’s cell responsible for maintaining records of gifts has said that during 2006-07, the Foreign Ministry forwarded only one such list for Shaukat Aziz’s visit to Yemen and Saudi Arabia in December 2006. The cell, called ‘Toshkhana’, said the Foreign Ministry did not prepare a list for other foreign visits during the year.

The AGP has now recommended that a list of gifts and the names of recipients – along with the record of Pakistani officials’ visits to foreign countries and visits by foreign dignitaries to Pakistan – be acquired by the Cabinet Division from the chief protocol officer of the Foreign Ministry or his/her representatives.

It has also been recommended that the management maintain a complete record of the gifts being kept at Toshkhana and ‘stocks be checked periodically’. The details of gifts sold out at auctions are also to be maintained.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg7_18