Pakistani newly appointed General Auditor, Maqbool Ahmed Gondal, took over at a time when the highest authority of the audit in the country is under intensive control for a report that dramatically overvalued financial discrepancies in government accounts, Dawn reported.
Maqbool Ahmed Gondal, sworn as the 22nd Auditor in Pakistan on Monday, will serve the four -year period. Its immediate challenge is negotiations with the fall of the general auditor of Pakistan (AGP) of the previously “consolidated audit of the Federal Government for 2024-25” that originally demanded irregularities £376 trillion – figure more than three times Pakistani GDP.
From “trillion” to “billions”
Report published in August, alleged irregularity of orders £284 trillion, defective civil work £85.6 trillion and unresolved circular debt £1.2 trillion. Astronomical figures have caused distrust in government circles and widespread criticism in the media.
After weeks of defense of the report, the office of the general auditor quietly confessed to “typos”, which explained that the word trillion was mistakenly used in some places. Revised figure £9,769 trillion – still massive amounts – was uploaded last week on AGP website. This represents almost two-thirds of the Pakistani federal budget for the FY 2023-24.
Why don’t the numbers add up
Experts say the initial £376 Billion of the figure was the result of inflated aggregation of audit observation than verified financial losses.
Ekonom Dr. Vaqar Ahmad at the Institute of Sustainable Development Policy told Dawn that AGP often classifies procedure as inconsistencies, which “multiplies values far for real expenses”.
Former auditors also point out that Pakistan’s audit procedures rely on outdated methods. The only project can be subjected to several times according to different rules and create layers of “irregularities” without necessarily demonstrating corruption.
Call to reform
Managing officials claim that the problem lies in expertise, but in the approach. Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh, Secretary of the Housing and Works Division and former Minister of Finance, said that the Pakistani audit system must move from only the identification of outages to evaluate whether government expenditures bring “value for money” as common in developed countries.
A challenge of credibility
The controversy had the office of the general auditor to face the crisis of credibility. Critics say that the episode reflects deeper deficiencies within the liability in Pakistan, where data on the seizure of headings often obscure real financial supervision.
(Tagstotranslate) Pakistani audit system
