The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has assured the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) of reviewing and finalizing the NBP Audit Report (2012-20), as the bank sought clarifications from the former on various statements and data included in the report.

Pointed out by the National Bank of Pakistan, the Auditor General of Pakistan has agreed to rectify the ‘factual errors’ in the Audit Report (2012-20) received to the bank from the Office of the Director-General Commercial Audit & Evaluation (South), Department of AGP, on December 28, 2021. AGP said it was a draft and, as per the process, was to be finalized after deliberations with the NBP management.

According to details, NBP held a meeting with an AGP team at the NBP Head Office, Karachi, to seek clarifications on the statements made and the data quoted in the report. The AGP team was led by Director-General (South) and comprised two other senior members.

During the meeting, the AGP team informed NBP that the said Audit Report should be construed as a compilation of their preliminary observations, which were yet to be reviewed and finalized after deliberations with NBP management.

The NBP management pointed out several factual errors in the report in actual paragraphs and the AGP officers agreed to review and amend them, wherever warranted.

In discussions with NBP senior officers, AGP expressed concerns over a premature release of the referenced confidential draft observation report circulating in the media. The AGP team said AGP was conducting an internal inquiry into the violation of protocols.

The team further revealed that as per the process, whenever the report was finalized after discussion with NBP management, it was to be available in the public domain on the AGP website.

Earlier, NBP had discovered irregularities of Rs. 235 billion in its audit from 2012-2020, which had caused a huge loss to the national exchequer. The audit was carried out by the Director-General Commercial Audit and Evaluation Karachi Wing of AGP.

Source: Pro Pakistani