20000401

AGP reviews 137

recruitment cases at national level

ISLAMABAD: Findings of third party validation exercise for the Social Action Programme (SAP), have reflected that 81 percent sites selected for construction of schools, basic health units and rural water supply and drainage scheme met minimum criteria.

According to the findings released by the office of Auditor General of Pakistan, the auditors reviewed 137 cases of recruitment at the national level.

Based on compliance with key criteria, 85 (62 percent) of the cases met the critical criteria and procedures. In procurement, the auditors reviewed 1,720 cases.

There were 932 cases of goods, 779 of civil works and 9 cases of consultancy, based on the categories, 1,428 cases were of less than $25,000 category, while 275 were in the $25,000 Ñ $200,000 range.

There were nine cases in the $200,000 Ñ $300,000 category and eight cases in the $300,000 category. In terms of compliance with key criteria, 867 (50 percent) cases met the minimum requirements and were found valid.

At the national level, the auditors reviewed 1,039 sites selected by the line departments for construction of schools, basic health units, rural water supply and sanitation/drainage schemes. Out of the reviewed sites, 838 (81 percent) met the minimum criteria of site selection.

While validation systems, created by the line departments for monitoring of absenteeism, in 529 offices, the auditors assessed only 157 (30 percent) of the offices had adequate systems of monitoring absenteeism.

The findings of the third round of third party validation (TPV) exercise for the Social Action Programme (SAP) for the year 2000, were released to the Federal SAP Secretariat for onward transmission to the donors.

During the TPV exercise, the Auditor General's department reviewed cases of site election, recruitment and procurement in education, health, population welfare and rural water supply and sanitation sectors, pertaining to the SAP.

The TPV also examined the system for monitoring staff absenteeism in education, health and population welfare departments.

Under a MoU signed by the planning and development division, Auditor General of Pakistan and the donors represented by the World Bank in 1997, the department of the Auditor General is responsible for annually verifying that the site selection for constructing new facilities or for up-grading the existing ones was done according to the criteria notified by the government.

The recruitment in the SAP sectors was carried out according to the official rules and procedures, procurement. Activities were carried out according to the established criteria and procedures.

The TPV exercise also verifies if an effective system of staff-absenteeism existed in the line departments.

The geographic coverage of TPV extended over Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad Capital Territory, Northern Areas and the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas. The SAP, being the flagship of social development involves the largest chunk of development budget and constitutes the core work of the nation building departments. At this time of economic morass, TPV has become an enormously significant task.ÑAPP