MIRPUR (AJK): President Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Sardar Masood Khan Saturday called for addressing the causes that affect schedule delay, cost escalation and quality of work in the public-funded development projects. It is a time to introduce an effective system to ensure transparency in the use of funds and timely accomplishment of all public welfare projects in the country, he said while addressing the opening session of the Auditors General Conference in the State metropolis on Saturday.
The President AJK said that through exercising of its constitutional powers by the institution of Auditor General, good governance could be ensured by needing no other institution of accountability.
He said that it was the constitutional and legal obligation of the Auditor General to ensure transparency in the utilization of every penny allocated for the public welfare projects and it was a matter of pleasure that the institutions in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir were striving to fulfill this obligation. He stressed on utilizing of modern technology to perform the responsibilities of the audit system by ensuring that rules and regulations are being complied in the funds being utilized for the development projects and its completion within the specified. “Delay in completion of projects leads to its cost escalation besides losing its utility. This further leads to replacement of those who are associated with it thereby leaving the accountability process incomplete” he declared.
The State President emphasized on looking into the reasons behind the non-achievement of the objectives and targets of the projects, despite of spending of state funds on it in a transparent manner. He said that the private sector involved in the projects completed under public-private partnership also falls within the scope of the Auditor General.
He stressed upon the need of a mechanism for the accountability of those serving with the financial auditing, saying that new and emerging technologies were substantially altering the environment of financial reporting.
President Khan also said that the technologies like block chain, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence were changing the entire environment of management’s internal control over financial reporting.
Addressing the conference, Auditor General of Pakistan Javed Jahangir said, the Auditor General office ensures transparency of the utilization of state’s financial resources under the parliamentary supervision and presents its reports to the public accounts committees of the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies. However, we are endeavoring to introduce new technologies in our department in the changed situation besides trying to modernize our monitoring and reporting system in order to get maximum results within resource and time constraints, he added. Ends/app/ahr