ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has taken serious note of the theft of material worth Rs57.857 million in different formations of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and criticized the attitude of Wapda officials towards pursuing investigations.

The committee, which met under its chairman Malik Allah Yar Khan here on Tuesday, reviewed the audit report of the Ministry of Water and Power for the year 2000-01 and expressed its concern over the theft of vehicles and materials worth Rs57.857 million from 82 different formations of Wapda.

The committee directed the secretary of the ministry to pursue investigations and take a strict action against the officials involved in causing loss to the authority.

The chairman of the committee, according to an official handout, also asked Wapda to make vigilance cells more effective in order to avoid recurrence of such instances in future.

The committee also expressed its concern over the purchase of defective transformers by Wapda causing Rs4.162 million loss to the national exchequer. The PAC was informed that a lot of transformers with inherent design defect were purchased from a Romanian company and these were not properly inspected before receiving the consignment.

The transformers developed defects after installation and subsequently had to be got repaired causing loss to Wapda. The PAC also directed Wapda to initiate disciplinary action against those responsible and report within 10 days.

Discussing another audit para, the chairman also directed Wapda to produce the accounts and utilization record of electrical material worth Rs50.539 million to the audit department so that veracity of the utilization of the material could be established.

The PAC observed that due to non-production of record, chances of misappropriation could not be ruled out. The PAC also termed it a lapse on the part of Wapda for not taking into account the utilization of material after seven years.

The committee regularized various audit observations subject to confirmation by the audit department and as recommended by the departmental accounts committees.

The committee also conveyed its displeasure at the surrender of huge savings in respect of two different grants of the ministry amounting to Rs1.259 billion. Malik Allah Yar directed the ministry to strengthen its internal financial controls, strictly monitor the utilization of budgetary allocation and to avoid seeking unnecessary budgetary demands.

The meeting was attended by Chaudhry Qamaruzzaman Kaira, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri, Ghulam Rasool Sahi, Asiya Azeem, Syed Qurban Ali Shah, Liaquat Baloch, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Riaz Fatiyana, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed apart from the auditor-general of Pakistan, the secretary of the ministry and other officials of the departments concerned.