Official vehicle misuse causes heavy financial losses in Punjab

LAHORE: A special audit for the Punjab Services and General Administration Department’s (S&GAD) official vehicle allocation has discovered a loss of more than 9 million rupees to the provincial treasury, according to media reports.

The audit report for the fiscal year 2022–2023  reveals that government vehicles were allocated to junior officers who were not eligible to receive cars under the 2008 official transport policy.

The regulations already define the ranks and designations which state to whom the government cars can be allocated; however, these regulations are not followed, the audit reveals.

On many occasions, cars beyond the allocated engine capacities were given to the officers, which led to inflated expenses on fuel, repair, and maintenance, culminating in an unjustified expenditure of Rs 9,095,063.

The auditors identified administrative carelessness and inadequate internal control systems as the main contributing factors. In August and September of 2023, audit observations were sent, but the department did not reply.

Additionally, follow-up reminders were ignored. The Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) met on January 31, 2024, and while they evaluated some of the audit findings, they failed to address a number of important concerns. There were no follow-up meetings, and there has been no update on any developments.

The occurrence of such anomalies is not new. A similar misconduct of official transport was discovered in a prior audit for 2017–18, which resulted in a reported loss of Rs 20.10 million. Systemic problems and a lack of institutional responsibility within the department are shown by the recurrent nature of these behaviors.