ISLAMABAD: The Federal Cabinet has decided to hold forensic audit of mega projects like metro bus, Orange Train and other projects with an objective to ensure transparency.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said funds worth billions of rupees had been spent or announced, by the previous government, for different districts to build airports, motorways and other mega projects ignoring the basic needs like health, education and clean drinking water. “Therefore, the cabinet has also decided to conduct a forensic audit of such projects and call in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for investigation if required.”
Briefing the media, he said the purpose for conducting forensic audit of mass transit projects was to evaluate if the public money was used appropriately. “We spent billions of rupees on metro bus projects and afterwards are paying billions of rupees to run them. This needs an audit that will be done across the board.”
He said the prime minister was keen about forensic audit of projects as he desired that facts were briskly revealed to the masses.
The minister said there was a chance of corruption as earlier billions of rupees were spent on those projects and the government had now to pay Rs 8 to 10 billion more to run them.
To a question about the Orange Line train project, he said the project has been under CPEC and where there were state guarantees, the present government would abide by those agreements and the Orange Line project would be completed in near future as the Chief Justice of Pakistan had also directed for its early completion.
The minister said the Cabinet also decided to discontinue provision of discretionary funds to the president, the prime minister, federal ministers and parliamentarians, besides announcing a number of austerity measures and holding forensic audit of certain mega projects.
He said two weekly holidays would continue, however, in order to improve efficiency of the government offices, all of them would work from 9am to 5pm. “After a detailed discussion, it was decided to continue Saturday as a weekly holiday. But, the office timing has been increased by an hour, from 9am to 5pm.”
He said a task force would be set up for collecting information about basic amenities at slums as he referred to the prime minister’s vision to focus on the poorest of the poor for providing them basic facilities.
The cabinet, he said, also decided about starting an urban tree plantation campaign with special focus on Karachi where the environmental situation had degraded over the years while Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta would be other cities of its focus.
He said the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) would be abolished while the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting would stay and organizations working under it like Pakistan Television (PTV), Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) and Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) would be overhauled.
The minister said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif used Rs 21 billion discretionary funds during one year and also allocated Rs 30 billion to parliamentarians for development schemes at his own will. “Since the national kitty is not a personal property of any individual, therefore, the cabinet has decided that all future projects will route through the parliament to ensure that tax payers’ money were spent judiciously.”
He said the prime minister would not use his personal aircraft for travelling rather he and his cabinet members would avail Club Class instead of First Class. “The government will request other important personalities to also use the Club Class no matter even if they are entitled to the First Class.”
