Auditor General of Pakistan Maqbool Ahmad Gondal has identified financial irregularities worth billions of rupees across dozens of federal divisions and departments in the annual audit report for 2025–26.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb tabled the report before the National Assembly on Wednesday. It will now be referred to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for review.
The report covers commercial corporations, tax machinery, and the power, telecommunications, railway, and social protection sectors. Its findings represent the position of auditors and include departmental responses from Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) meetings.
The report was presented under Article 171 of the Constitution, marking the first time in the history of Pakistan that audit documents have been placed before the legislature within the same financial year to which the audit cycle relates.
Lawmakers also received digital access to the documents simultaneously, another first.
FBR, Power Sector and Petroleum
Auditors identified Rs117.8 billion in under-realised super tax in Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) accounts, along with unrecovered duties.
In the Petroleum Division, auditors pointed to recoveries of approximately Rs117 billion and a disputed gas subsidy balance running into hundreds of billions of rupees.
Electricity distribution companies including Hesco, Lesco, and Fesco were found to be operating with unaudited accounts for 2023–25 and without internal audits. Subsidy claims remained withheld and transmission projects were stalled.
Telecommunications
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was found to have failed to bring data centres under its licensing framework and did not penalise Ufone despite confirmed cases of illegal SIM activation.
The National Telecommunication Corporation was found to be providing services to private clients, beyond its government-only mandate.
Railways and Infrastructure
Pakistan Railways received a qualified audit opinion and was flagged for encroachment on more than 1,500 kanals of prime land. The National Highway Authority (NHA) was cited for revenue leakages from tolls, right-of-way charges, and fines, as well as expenditure beyond sanctioned limits.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had prepared no annual financial statements for the years under audit and showed weaknesses in its land directorate that auditors linked to the alteration of compensation instruments.
WAPDA Projects & BISP
Among Wapda projects, the Dasu Hydropower Scheme recorded a 257 percent cost overrun. The 969MW Neelum-Jhelum plant has remained offline since May 2024 following tunnel collapses, with inquiries still incomplete.
The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) was flagged for weak data controls, resulting in payments to ineligible beneficiaries and duplicate transfers.
Disaster Management
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) audit raised 10 findings, four rated critical.
These included approximately Rs952 million in bank balances omitted from accounts, more than Rs1 billion in undisclosed Sindh sales tax liabilities linked to two Karachi storm-water drain contracts, Rs752 million in misclassified expenditure, and approximately Rs10.8 billion in relief stock held without an inventory-tracking system.
All 20 findings from the previous year also remained unaddressed.
Agricultural Storage
The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) recorded cumulative losses of Rs21.34 billion between 2021 and 2025, with financing costs exceeding revenue. Receivables of Rs257.128 billion for wheat supplies remained unrecovered from federal and provincial agencies.
The AGP estimated that a 50 percent recovery rate could save Rs22.5 billion annually in financing costs. Auditors also flagged overbilling of Rs32.26 billion to the federal government through inflated strategic reserve costs, incorrect incidental charges, and unauthorised mark-up claims.
