PAC to conduct scrutiny of 33 cricket grounds

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has constituted a four-member fact-finding committee to physically examine the thirty-three cricket grounds developed by the former Pakistan Cricket Board management, an official of the audit department told Dawn on Thursday.

‘The committee was formed following the Auditor-General of Pakistan’s raising an audit objection about the miserable conditions at most of these grounds developed during 2003-08 at a cost of Rs65 million,’ a senior official of the AGP said on condition of anonymity.

The fact-finding committee would be visiting Quetta and Karachi in the first leg while the officials in the second tour would be visiting the stadiums and grounds in Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and few other cities.

‘Responsibilities will be fixed and if any official is found guilty of negligence the committee will be communicating the rules and regulations to the PAC,’ the official said.

The AGP, after another audit observation, said that a ground of Rani Bagh, Hyderabad, is being used for weddings and other commercial activities while several other grounds have been left totally abandoned.

The official said: ‘Rukan Abdullah Gardezi - senior joint secretary of the Ministry of Sports, Tahir Hanafi — senior joint secretary PAC, Gulzar Hasnain — director general federal audit and a senior PCB official have been named as members of the fact-finding committee.’

The AGP had conducted a special audit of the cricket board on the request of the Federal Sports Ministry.

The federal audit department has pointed out irregularities of around Rs500 million.

The officials at the PAC has raised serious concern over the audit report while the AGP officials informed the committee members that the PCB failed to provide them documents regarding several audit observations.

‘The PCB is being run like a shop,’ the director general of the federal audit told the committee members on Nov 21 as the AGP failed to acquire records of several issues during the audit of the cash-rich sports body.

Chairman PAC Chaudhry Nisar had directed the AGP officials, Ministry of Sports and the cricket board to revisit the audit report 2004-08 before sending the final report to the PCB.

‘The committee will be submitting its report within the given target of two months,’ the official said.