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Rs
290m bungling in
Overseas Foundation
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Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) sustained a serious
loss of Rs 290.761 million due to financial mismanagement,
mainly because the authorities focus to give more benefits
to Foundation’s own employees instead of Overseas
Pakistanis.
Loose internal control and poor planning of various schemes
not only put the OPF to a great financial loss but also
damaged its goodwill amongst its members for whose benefit
the Foundation was established. A proper system of liaison
with overseas Pakistanis does not exist to involve them
in the activities of OPF.
The Audit Report on OPF for the year 2001-02 made public
late Monday, reveals the gross violations of rules by the
authorities who gave a preferential treatment to their vested
interests instead of serving the purpose the Foundation
was meant for.
The financial management at OPF is neither economical nor
efficient as money is being lost on almost every activity
without contributing towards the social welfare of Overseas
Pakistanis, the report says recommending the services of
professionally qualified persons instead of non-professional
officials.
It says none of the housing schemes has been completed to
a point where construction of houses can be started despite
the fact that OPF has been working on these projects for
the last two decades.
Despite the fact that OPF schools/colleges are functioning
on non-commercial pattern yet they lost money over the last
5 years while the half of the institutions have run into
losses and no data was provided for one girl’s college
at Islamabad, the report says.
The preferential treatment to the OPF employees is obvious
from the fact that the children of overseas Pakistanis get
20 per cent fee concession in the OPF schools/colleges whereas
children of employees and officers of the Foundation get
70 per cent and 50 per cent fee concession respectively.
These abnormal concessions to the children of employees
and officers of the OPF also suggest that these educational
institutions have been set up by the management for their
own dependents rather than those of the overseas Pakistanis,
notes the report.
Audit also observed that the OPF has generally not opened
the schools/colleges in the areas of concentration of overseas
Pakistanis thereby depriving a large population of the dependents
of overseas Pakistanis to benefit from these institutions.
The management treats non-entitled patients at par with
entitled patients at the cost of overseas Pakistanis in
its eye hospitals, says the report. It says that airport
counters of OPF started functioning from September 1,2001
at Islamabad,Karachi, Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar but no
record has been maintained at any of these places to show
the performance of these counters.
The report observes that contract management by the OPF
has been poor which caused financial losses both in case
of housing schemes and OPF office building.
While the Overseas Pakistanis Pension Trust is not managed
by a professional fund manager and is a complete failure
as expenditures on establishment is more than the total
subscription and nothing has been invested for successful
operation of the pension scheme.
Cash management of the OPF is poor and large amounts of
cash are kept idle, the report observes. A proper system
of liaison with Overseas Pakistanis does not exist to involve
them in the activities of OPF. While the consultant services
when required have not been optimally utilized under the
contract.
An examination of the working of the housing schemes, schools
and colleges, eye hospitals etc , found out that there was
no criteria for establishing these institutions and interest
of Overseas Pakistanis was not kept supreme, the report
observes.
In absence of a rational yardstick to establish housing
colonies, schools and colleges or eye hospitals at various
places, the management used discretionary powers that neglected
areas of Overseas Pakistanis concentration, OPF sustained
financial loss of Rs 290.761 million.
In its recommendation the report says that the OPF interests
should be kept supreme and for that matter there is a dire
need to strengthen internal controls in the OPF.
Employees of the OPF should not be given greater preferential
treatment more than that of the overseas Pakistanis and
steps should be taken to wipe out the financial losses of
educational institutions.
Pension Trust of the OPF may be closed down as it has not
been able to attract sufficient number of subscribers and
OPF has not been able to invest the subscription in a profitable
manner.
An enquiry committee should be constituted to fix the responsibility
for making payment on account of escalation on labour and
steel in contravention of the provisions of contract agreement
of OPF office building and to effect recovery from those
held responsible for wrongful payments.
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