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All secret funds must be audited: SC verdict
[Dawn] The Supreme Court ordered on Tuesday that all secret funds be audited by the Auditor General of Pakistain (AGP).In its judgment in the media commission case, the court declared illegal and unconstitutional Rule 37 (5) of the General Financial Rules (GFR) which is currently being used to exempt secret services funds from independent audit by the AGP. It said all expenditures from the public exchequer must be made in a transparent manner and each rupee must be audited by the AGP in order to ensure compliance with the law. The secret funds allocated to about 27 ministries in the budget 2012-13 totalled over Rs3.57 billion. The 20-page verdict was issued on petitions filed by journalists Hamid Mir and Absar Alam seeking abolition of secret funds maintained by the Ministry of Information. Authored by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, the judgment said that after the 18th Amendment under Article 170 (2) of the constitution, the AGP enjoyed a strong constitutional mandate to audit all public expenditures without exception. Posted by: Fred 2013-07-17 |
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