Rs 3,661.9m irregularities in KP books board: AGP

PESHAWAR: The Auditor General of Pakistan has detected irregularities in the affairs of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Text Book Board (KPTBB), causing a loss of around Rs 3,661.978 million to the national exchequer.

The auditor has accused the previous KPTBB administration of embezzlement, fake supply of books, selling free books and fake entries in the stock. He has blamed the board management and recommended recovery, high-level investigations and fixing responsibility. He also recommended disciplinary action and prosecution of responsible officials.

The findings included nonproduction of auditable records of general sale of books by the Sale Wing worth Rs 26,750 million. About Rs 1.75 billion Sales Tax was not deducted from the vendor’s bills.

When Minister for Education Shahram Khan Tarakai was contacted, he said it was very clear that no leniency would be given to anyone involved in irregularities, but he had not read the report. “Let my team read and analyze it first”.

A board official, on condition of anonymity, said the newly-appointed KPTBB chairman took concrete steps to improve the board affairs and ensure transparency and accountability, but this report was related to previous years, which would have to be answered by former officers.

The special audit report for 2018-19 to 2020-21 has been submitted to the KP governor in pursuance of Article 171 of the Constitution, for laying it before the provincial assembly. The audit report disclosed that the actual books required in government schools throughout the province were 109,070,294 in the academic years 2018-19, 2019-20 & 2020-21 as per a Directorate General Education Monitoring Authority report. However, 151,053,609 books were printed/distributed, resulting in an excess of 41,983,315 books during the three years. The excess procurement/distribution of books more than actually required is a serious lapse on the part of the board. The auditor has recommended a high-level inquiry, recovery of Rs 1,642 million from the officers concerned besides fixing responsibility on the persons at fault.

The special audit report revealed that 11,420 books of Class 8 and 10 worth Rs 1.0268 million showed in the stock register were found missing, indicating that these books were sold out by the officials concerned because they were aware that these books were going to be revised/changed from the next academic year. This showed Rs 1.0268 million embezzlement.

It was observed that the board staff was involved in embezzlement by selling “not for sale books” in the open market worth Rs 10 million. These books of English were sold in the open market of District Kohat in 2019-2020. The scrutiny of the record reveals that these books were sold to booksellers in Kohat by a registered sale agent of Peshawar and it was confirmed by the seller. After an inquiry, only Rs 62,000 were fined. The auditor is of the view that the whole amount should be recovered from the officials responsible for embezzlement.

It was noticed that the fake supply of books caused Rs 34.156 million loss to the national exchequer. The contract for procurement & supply of the “My English Reader” book for Class 4 was awarded during the academic year 2020-21 with the quantity of 657,737 books @ Rs 51.93 per book. As per the stock register, the “My English Reader” book for Class 4 was shown in the month of May & June 2020. The issuance of the same book was made in the month of March & April 2020, two months prior to the printing of the said book. The auditor is of the view that the issuance of books to different districts prior to their printing and onward supply to the board shows fictitious entries made in the stock register that needs justification as it caused Rs 34.156 million loss to the national exchequer. However, further verification of the record reveals that the number of books was changed by overwriting the voucher, increased from 657,737 to 667,409, which resulted in an excess payment of Rs 502, 267.

The auditor noticed that fake entries of books were made in the stock register and inquiries conducted by three departmental committees confirmed that the books were missing. He recommended recovery of missing books valuing at Rs 2.625 million from the responsible besides taking disciplinary action to avoid such occurrence in the future. The auditor revealed that the publishers/printers caused a loss to the government with the connivance of the board management on account of piracy of textbooks on an annual basis. The scrutiny of the relevant records revealed that the board received 7.5% royalty from the publishers/printers on sales of books and the publishing mafia was in the habit of exploiting the government by showing less quantity of general sales books to be printed and sold in the market.

The auditor is of the view that the publishers/printers hid the actual number of general sales books printed/sold in the market, depriving the board of Rs 147.174 million royalty. Through piracy of textbooks, they earned a lot by causing a huge financial loss to the board, and in this practice, the board officials were involved for monetary benefits.

It was noticed that a huge quantity of Grade 11 books worth Rs 10.862 million was lying in the stock. It was decided that the said books would be utilized this year to save the exchequer and the revised books would be printed from the next academic year. But a board committee under the chair of the secretary Elementary and Secondary Education decided to introduce the revised books from 2020-2021 instead of the next academic year. The auditor said this decision of the committee brought a loss of Rs 10.862 million for the government.

It was observed that a contract for the printing of the Creative Art Book of the Nursery class for 2020-21 & 2021-22 was awarded. The scrutiny of the relevant records revealed that the book was of the same specification, colour and scheme with the same number of pages, also procured from the same printer, but its rate was considerably enhanced by 35.50% in 2021-22, which resulted in a loss of Rs 5,140,924 for the government. Similarly, 128%, 121%, 120%, and so on in the award of printing of books resulted in a loss of Rs 422.87 million.

It was noticed during the physical verification of the store that around 100 million outdated/obsolete books were lying in the board store along with other obsolete items, which needed to be auctioned.

The auditor is of the view that a list of unserviceable items and outdated books be prepared for an early auction to avoid further loss. The audit report said Rs 35 million were incurred on Grade 4 Islamiat book (Urdu and Pashto version). It was duly approved by subject specialists and proofreading was carried out by a subject specialist. It was printed and distributed among all government schools in KP, but, later on, when nonprinting of the words Khatamun Nabiyeen on Page 13 was pointed out, it was decided to reprint the book and recollect the objected book from all districts. Reprinting of the book cost Rs 35m, besides transportation charges. It was decided that the same book would be used in the next academic year after making changes on Page 13. But it was a matter of concern that neither the book was recollected despite drawing transportation charges nor the book was utilized in the next financial year.

It was observed that around Rs 1.75 billion tax was not deducted from different vendors during the payment for publication. The board administration awarded unauthorized special pay & honoraria worth Rs 1.322 million to different employees.