Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has yet to get access to core record of regulatory bodies despite directive of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that all government organisations are subject of audit under the Constitution.
The AGP has mandate to complete audit of the regulators.
The audit officials will not only audit the expenditures of the regulatory authorities but also their performance and other matters.
The regulatory authorities refused to give access to the AGP to their accounts on the pretext that no allocation in the budget is made for them.
They are meeting their expenditure by their own.
In October 2019, the Law Ministry accepted the request of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), which contended that the AGP does not have the authority to carry out the audit of the regulatory functions (of any regulator) because the country’s Constitution, the AG Ordinance 2001, and the Ogra Ordinance, 2002, limit the scope of the AGP powers to the extent of conduct of audit of the accounts of the Ogra (and other regulatory bodies).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
