NA Speaker Sends Back Controversial Rs. 375 Trillion Audit Report to AGP

A fresh dispute has erupted between the National Assembly (NA) and the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) after the lower house returned the annual audit report for FY2023-24 without tabling it in parliament, citing procedural lapses. The report, already mired in controversy for citing an unprecedented Rs. 375 trillion in financial irregularities, 27 times the size of the federal budget and more than three times Pakistan’s GDP, was sent back to the AGP office after Speaker of the National Assembly expressed displeasure that it was forwarded directly to the NA Secretariat rather than routed through the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, reported a national daily. In response, the AGP reminded the NA Secretariat of its constitutional obligation to present the audit findings before parliament. Nevertheless, the AGP had already made the documents public by uploading them to its website before their formal laying in the legislature, further fueling controversy. The audit report flagged staggering anomalies: Rs. 284.17 trillion in procurement, Rs. 85.6 trillion in delayed or defective civil works, Rs. 2.5 trillion in pending receivables, and Rs. 1.2 trillion in circular debt. Financial experts say the numbers are baffling and possibly point to either a massive compilation error or a credibility crisis in the country’s financial oversight system. An AGP spokesman defended the process, saying the requisite copies had been sent to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs as well as the NA and Senate Secretariats. He explained that a combined report of all federal audit findings was also compiled last year, but for the first time, the total amount of irregularities was included in the executive summary “to make it easier for search purposes.”