PESHAWAR: A comprehensive audit report for the 2024–25 financial year has revealed staggering financial irregularities totaling Rs 17.78 billion within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Local Government Department, highlighting widespread administrative mismanagement, illegal recruitments, and unauthorized expenditures.
The financial discrepancies stem from a range of violations, including irregular appointments, awarding contracts to favored individuals, cash disbursements to contractors bypassing formal cross-cheques or banking channels, unverified arrears, and glaring reconciliation gaps between the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and District Accounts Offices (DAOs).
KP Audit Report Unearths Financial Irregularities Worth Billions
A recent audit has uncovered significant financial irregularities and administrative shortcomings across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 36 districts, raising serious concerns about public funds management and financial transparency. The audit identified a massive Rs 9.27 billion discrepancy between State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) records and District Accounts Offices (DAOs) in 24 districts, with DAO records showing Rs 22.52 billion against the Rs 13.25 billion reflected in SBP systems. It also flagged irregular cash disbursements of Rs 92.33 million directly to Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs), along with Rs 15.43 million distributed as employee arrears and incentives without proper audit disclosures. Furthermore, unauthorized recruitments reportedly cost the national exchequer Rs 559.5 million, while violations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (KPPRA) rules resulted in losses of Rs 453.5 million. Mismanagement of commercial bank accounts caused an additional Rs 858.8 million loss, while administrative negligence and service delivery failures accounted for discrepancies amounting to Rs 3.60 billion.
Inactive Schools and Questionable Expenditures
The audit report spotlighted severe anomalies in public sector development spending, most notably in Abbottabad, where an exorbitant Rs 529.3 million was reportedly spent on upgrading and purchasing supplies for non-functional educational institutions. Auditors raised serious objections over incurring massive expenditures on schools that remained entirely non-operational and lacking teaching staff.
Additional irregularities were uncovered in Bajaur district, where 25 mosque prayer leaders (Pesh Imams)—who are simultaneously employed as government school teachers—received Rs 3.3 million in stipends. The audit deemed the dual compensation unlawful. Cumulatively, unauthorized human resource allocations, service delivery failures, and administrative negligence in Bajaur caused a Rs 289.9 million loss to the provincial exchequer.
Also Read: PTI-Era Feeder Blackout System Ends as Federal Government Introduces New Relief Measures in KP
The explosive findings have drawn intense scrutiny, fueling demands for rigorous accountability and structural reforms to safeguard public funds and ensure transparency across provincial departments.
