The Prime Minister said while chairing the briefing of the Auditor General which was also attended by the Leader of the Opposition and Chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Ch. Nisar Ali Khan at the Auditor General’s Office here Monday.

He directed the Auditor General’s Office which enjoys constitutional sanction and has direct responsibility of auditing public expenditure and revenue to play its due role in plugging the pilferage through proactive approach.

Chairman PAC, Ch. Nisar Ali Khan while lauding the Prime Minister for appointing Leader of the Opposition as Chairman PAC said that he is highly impressed by today’s meeting at the Auditor General’s Office which aimed at making the accountability cycle more effective and efficient. He appreciated the efforts of the government in making the Parliament more effective while empowering the PAC to play its due role vigilantly.

The Prime Minister said the Government is extending full cooperation to the PAC in nurturing a culture of good governance in the country. He said he had already given directions to all Principal Accounting Officers to carry out reconciliation of their accounts on monthly basis and to ensure their personal presence in PAC meetings.

The Federal Ministers and Secretaries have already been directed to ilprove financial discipline in their respective Ministries and ensure judicious and prudent spending of public money, he added.

The Prime Minister said that audit and accounting are specialized functional areas and their evolving concepts and emerging complexities demand continuous up gradation of institutional capacities. The office of Auditor General of Pakistan must invest more in building the requisite organizational capacities, in human resource development and in bringing out audit reports of internationally acceptable quality, he added.

Emphasizing the important role of PAC, the Prime Minister said that it should play its constitutional role vigorously and would help the government lay the foundation of a culture of accountability not like NAB which was used in the past for targeted victimization. The Prime Minister said: “It is a huge challenge for the Government, PAC and the Auditor General of Pakistan that every penny that we borrow from abroad or generate through taxes from our people must be spent in a responsible manner”.