By Zaheer Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance has decided to summon the Auditor General of Pakistan and the auditor of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to explain where Rs815 billion claimed to have been recovered by the NAB were deposited, after the Finance Ministry stated that it was not aware in which account the said amount has been deposited.

In response to a question about recoveries by the NAB, the additional secretary finance said that so far, the NAB has recovered Rs821 billion. He said that the Finance Ministry does not know from where the recovered money was collected and in which account of the government the money was being deposited. “It is not known in which account the NAB deposited the recovered Rs815 billion.”

The committee was told that of the recovered amount, only Rs6.5 billion was received under non-tax revenue. Where did the rest of the funds go, members of the committee asked.

The committee members said it was strange that the Finance Ministry, which deals with the revenue and expenditure of the country is oblivious about any record of such a large amount of money. This is a matter of surprise and concern. Senator Musaddik Malik said and asked that US$250 million sent by the National Crime Agency of the UK was also part of the total recovery or not. As no one was able to answer the questions asked by the members, the committee chairman decided to summon the auditor general of Pakistan and the auditor of the NAB in the next meeting of the committee to explain where the money recovered by the NAB deposited.

This article first appeared in Business Recorder