Auditor General of Pakistan points to financial irregularities in Pakistan Cricket Board

Karachi: The Auditor General of Pakistan has exposed a number of financial irregularities running into millions of rupees, illegal appointments and award of contracts in the Pakistan Cricket Board.

The Audit report has mentioned several instance of irregularities including a payment of 63.39 million rupees to the police for meals for providing security during international matches.

The report also mentioned unauthorized appointment of three coaches in the under -16 age group at the high performance centre in Karachi for a total salary of 5.4 million rupees, and irregular award of ticketing contracts without open competition.

The PCB during the fiscal year June 2023 and July 2024 has had two separate chairmen in Zaka Ashraf and Mohsin Naqvi.

Since former test captain Ramiz Raja was removed as Chairman in December 2022 the PCB has had three Chairmen including Najam Sethi from December 2022 to June 2023, Zaka Ashraf June 2023 to January 2024 and Mohsin Naqvi February 2024 to date.

The report also mentioned overpayment to match officials on account of match fees 3.8 million rupees, irregular appointment of Director media for 900,000 per month and unauthorized payments of 4.17 million rupees to Chairman from February to June 2024 as payment of utility charges, POL and accommodation even while the Chairman was holding the office of Interior Minister and all his benefits stood covered under the law.

The report has also highlighted how a Director Media was appointed in October 2023 without any process as the post was advertised on August 17 but the appointment, day of application, approval of appointment, issuance of appointment letter, signing of agreement and joining was all done on the same day October 2, 2023.

This is not the first time the AG Pakistan has flagged irregularities in the spending of the PCB and its activities but so far no Chairman has ever been held accountable in fact Najam Sethi and Zaka Ashraf both served multiple tenures in the board.

The AG has noted that money has been spent without authorisation or proper bids. It cited examples of 19.8 million being spent on diesel for bulletproof vehicles provided by Punjab government, 22.5 million being spent on hiring of coasters, 198 million loss due to award of media rights at less than reserved price, irregular award of international broadcasting rights without open competition USD 99 million and non-recovery of outstanding sponsorship amounts to the tune of 5.3 billion rupees etc.