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ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan has revealed extensive financial irregularities exceeding Rs. 1 trillion in Punjab government expenditure accounts for the fiscal year 2023-2024, as per the recently released audit report for 2024-25.
The report identifies multiple categories of irregularities, including:
- Fraud and fund misuse: 14 cases totaling Rs. 3.1 billion
- Overpayments and unauthorized payments: 50 cases worth Rs. 25.4 billion
- Financial mismanagement: 21 cases amounting to Rs. 10.6 billion
- Mis-procurement issues: 45 cases valued at Rs. 43 billion
- Unauthorized retention of consolidated fund receipts: 12 cases with a staggering Rs. 988 billion held improperly in commercial banks and non-profit accounts
Additional concerns include 24 cases of human resource irregularities totaling Rs. 8.2 billion and 7 cases of performance-related weaknesses worth Rs. 3.6 billion.
Audit efforts led to identifying recoveries of over Rs. 25 billion, with Rs. 2.2 billion recovered between February 2024 and January 2025 alone. However, the report exposes significant internal control gaps in financial discipline, procurement processes, recruitment, payroll systems, asset management, and budget execution.
Key Cases and Financial Issues Exposed
Among the highlighted issues are unverified online e-payments totaling Rs. 282 billion, uncollected loans and advances worth Rs. 352 billion, and unreported overdue receivables amounting to Rs. 282 billion. The report also flags Rs. 44 billion in unreported Punjab consolidated funds held in commercial banks, non-recovery of Rs. 2 billion in interest, failure to reclaim 541.563 acres of government land illegally occupied, and Rs. 480 million subsidies paid to ineligible farmers.
Sector-wise Expenditure Breakdown
Nearly 73% of Punjab’s spending is concentrated in four sectors:
- Communications and construction: 41%
- Health: 15%
- Education: 6%
- Housing, urban development, and public health engineering: 11%
Contrastingly, agriculture and irrigation, though vital to Punjab’s economy, receive only 5% and 4% of the budget, respectively. Other departments share the remaining 18%.
Employee salaries and benefits form 25% of total expenditures, loan repayments 20%, interest payments 5%, and only 2% is allocated for repairs and maintenance.
The report urges strict investigations into fraud and misuse to ensure legal accountability. It calls for the recovery of overpayments and unauthorized funds and the strengthening of recovery mechanisms. The Punjab Procurement Rules 2014 must be adhered to strictly. The report stresses depositing consolidated fund receipts into the treasury instead of commercial banks and calls for merit-based recruitment through transparent advertisement to control human resource management.
Moreover, it advocates improved monitoring of KPIs to enhance project outcomes and service delivery. The government is also advised to reform revenue collection, budgeting, and expenditure controls, and utilize modern tools for resource planning and oversight.
Government’s Response
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari assured that all legal procedures will be followed. Audit findings will be presented before relevant State Departmental Accounts Committees (SDACs), and unresolved issues will be forwarded to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for further action.
She emphasized: “PAC decisions will be implemented. Until unresolved paras are discussed by PAC, any action is considered illegal, premature, and against the law and rules.”
