The Auditor Basic of Pakistan has uncovered a number of monetary irregularities working into tens of millions of rupees, unlawful appointments, and the awarding of contracts within the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The audit report has talked about a number of situations of irregularities, together with a cost of 63.39 million rupees to the police for meals whereas offering safety throughout worldwide matches.
The report additionally talked about unauthorised appointment of three coaches within the under-16 age group on the high-performance centre in Karachi for a complete wage of 5.4 million rupees and the irregular award of ticketing contracts with out open competitors.
The PCB throughout the fiscal 12 months June 2023-July 2024 has had two separate chairmen.
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Since former Take a look at captain Ramiz Raja was eliminated as chairman in December 2022, the PCB has had three chairmen, together with Najam Sethi from December 2022 to June 2023, Zaka Ashraf from June 2023 to January 2024, and presently Mohsin Naqvi, who assumed workplace in February 2024.
The report additionally talked about overpayment to match officers on account of match charges of three.8 million rupees, irregular appointment of the director of media for 900,000 monthly, and unauthorised funds of 4.17 million rupees to the chairman from February to June 2024 as cost of utility costs, POL, and lodging, even whereas the chairman was holding the workplace of Inside Minister and all his advantages stood coated underneath the legislation.
The report has additionally highlighted how a director of media was appointed in October 2023 with none course of, because the publish was marketed on August 17, however the appointment, day of software, approval of appointment, issuance of appointment letter, signing of settlement, and becoming a member of have been all completed on the identical day (October 2, 2023).
This isn’t the primary time the AG of Pakistan has flagged irregularities within the spending of the PCB and its actions, however to date no chairman has ever been held accountable. Actually, Sethi and Ashraf each served a number of tenures on the board.
The AG has famous that cash has been spent with out authorisation or correct bids. It cited examples of 19.8 million being spent on diesel for bulletproof autos supplied by the Punjab authorities, 22.5 million being spent on hiring of coasters, 198 million loss because of award of media rights at lower than reserved value, irregular award of worldwide broadcasting rights with out open competitors (USD 99 million), and non-recovery of excellent sponsorship quantities to the tune of 5.3 billion rupees, and so forth.