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An audit by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has found major financial lapses at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). According to the report, SECP gave authorization to pay hikes without the necessary permission of the Finance Division. The increment has been carried out retroactively since July 1, 2023, and was voted in at a Policy Board meeting on October 17, 2024.
The audit reveals that the salary of the chairman was about Rs 41.53 million during the 2023 to 2024 financial year. Each commissioner received Rs 35.8 million after the backdated adjustments. The report treats these payments as unauthorised because the SECP lacked formal approval from the ministry responsible for finances. The auditors flagged total irregular pay and perks of nearly Rs 156.6 million plus an entertainment allowance disbursement of roughly Rs 110.9 million.
The AGP report further states that cumulative pay and allowance revisions without prior approval amounted to Rs 377.22 million. The auditors have asked the Finance Division to either regularise these increases or to direct a reversal. The report emphasizes rule-based governance and underlines that statutory approval is a legal requirement for changes to pay in autonomous federal bodies.
Separate audit findings show that the SECP did not remit almost Rs 14 billion to the Federal Consolidated Fund. This total includes revenues of about Rs 7.11 billion collected from licensing registration fees, insurance sector contributions, securities market charges, and specialised company levies. The report also estimates that around Rs 6.99 billion surplus balance remained instead of being deposited in the national treasury.
The audit uses the Public Finance Management Act, which requires the federal entities to pay the revenues collected into the treasury single account. The AGP conclusion presents these lapses as instances of violation of public finance rules and the need to take remedial measures by authorities dealing with oversight of these. The results will be used by the Finance Division parliamentary committees and other accountability agencies to engage in follow-up.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has firmly rejected the findings of the Auditor General of Pakistan’s (AGP) Consolidated Audit Report 2024–25, which alleged that SECP made unauthorized revisions to the pay and allowances of its employees and failed to deposit revenues into the Federal Consolidated Fund. SECP emphasized that all such decisions were made under the legal authority of the SECP Policy Board and in compliance with the SECP Act, 1997.
