Finance Ministry unaware of NAB’s recovered amount of Rs821.5 billion

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance has said that it is unaware about the whereabouts of the amount worth Rs821.5 billion recovered by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), as so far it has only collected Rs6.5 billion on account of non-tax revenue.

The officials of Ministry of Finance made this startling revelation in a Public Accounts Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Rana Tanveer Hussain.

To a question from Sherry Rehman, seeking details of the NAB’s recovered amount being spent, the senior officials of the Finance Ministry and the State Bank of Pakistan expressed their ignorance.

The Finance Ministry official said they only collected Rs6.5 billion as non-tax revenue, adding that only the NAB can brief the committee about the remaining Rs815 billion.

The NAB is not answerable to them and that’s why they can’t ask them about the whereabouts of this amount, the official said.

The members of the committee expressed astonishment at the fact that go Government ministry or institution knows where this huge amount has been kept.

Rana Tanveer said whatever money embezzled from the national exchequer was never recovered. He claimed the NAB’s recovery from the corruption cases is very low and the major recovery it made was through fraudulent cases such as Double Shah and illegal housing schemes.

Committee member Noor Alam said that NAB of the recovered amount deduct 20 per cent to meet its expenses, which should be reviewed.

Khawaja Asif said the whereabouts of 180 million pounds recovered from Malik Riaz by the British National Crime Agency is also unknown.

“This is not a small amount and the government should explain where this huge amount of money is,” he remarked.

Saleem Mandviwala said this money should’ve been in the government account but right now it is lying in the account of the Supreme Court.

The chairman of the committee through a letter asked the Auditor General of Pakistan and the NAB auditor to appear in the next meeting of the Public Accounts Committee.

Rana Tanveer also said that the audit of NAB account should also be done at the earliest.