According to Articles 169 and 170 of the Constitution, the audit of the accounts of the federal and provincial governments and the accounts of any authority or body established by or under the control of federal or a provincial government was required to be conducted by the auditor general who would determine the extent and nature of such audit, the AGP said.
Section 12 of the Auditor General's Ordinance, 2001 empowered the auditor general of Pakistan to conduct audit of receipts. Under section 14 of the ordinance, the officer in-charge of any office or the department was obliged to afford all facilities and provide record for audit inspection and comply with requests for information in as complete a form as possible and with all reasonable expedition. Any person or authority hindering the auditorial function of the auditor general regarding inspection of accounts is to be subject to disciplinary action under relevant efficiency and discipline rules.
Eight field formations of the FBR did not provide the auditable record of 4,909 cases requisitioned by audit teams. Non-production of record was a serious violation of law, as it created hindrance in discharging constitutional role of the Auditor-General's Department. It also deprived the government of cash recoveries affected at the instance of audit. Following record was not provided: record of tax refunds issued during the year 2015; cases of exemptions issued by the department during the tax year 2015; record of assessment orders passed during the year 2015; record of cases selected for audit by the board/commissioner during the year 2015; withholding statements (Sales Tax & Income Tax); audited accounts of taxpayers for the year 2015; list of cases under recovery; details of BTB cases where proceedings were pending along with latest position; details of BTB cases where proceeding dropped along with reasons behind; and details of third party data collected by CRTO Lahore (soft/hard format).
Furthermore, access to following record was totally denied to audit teams by all RTOs/LTUs, though it was requisitioned in selected cases: Income Tax and Sales Tax Returns; purchase/sales invoices; bank statements to check compliance of Section 73 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.
AGP report said that according to Section 14 (2) and (3) of the Auditor-General's (Functions, Powers and Terms and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2001 the officer-incharge of any office or department was required to afford all facilities and provide record for audit inspection and comply with requests for information in as complete a form as possible and with all reasonable expedition. Any person or authority hindering the auditorial functions of the auditor general regarding inspection of accounts was to be subjected to disciplinary action under relevant efficiency and discipline rules.
Ten field offices of the FBR did not produce auditable record related to receipts and expenditure and also denied access to the WeBOC system despite repeated requests by Audit. Resultantly, audit could not verify the accuracy of revenue collection or amount of expenditure incurred. The statutory obligation was violated to hinder the auditorial function. Audit apprehended that the record had not been produced intentionally in order to conceal irregularities and violations of the law committed by the aforesaid.
The irregularity/lapse was conveyed to the department during October 2015 to January 2016. The department replied that the record was now available for inspection by audit.
The DAC in its meetings held during January 19-22 and January 25-28, 2016 took serious notice of the issue and directed the department to produce the requisite record immediately. Further progress was not intimated till finalization of the report. Audit recommends that access to the WeBOC system be immediately provided and all auditable record be produced to audit, besides fixing of responsibility, the AGP report added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017