The Auditor General’s report for FY 2020-21 has uncovered financial irregularities exceeding Rs1.57 billion in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports and Tourism Department.
The report stated that the Tourism Corporation failed to produce records for Rs394.3 million allocated to eight projects. Additionally, Rs620 million released to the Tourism Authority for development projects was not utilized within the prescribed time.
Irregularities worth Rs465 million were also noted in auctions conducted by the Tourism Authority. Despite advertisements, 28 properties could not be leased out during 2020-21.
The audit further highlighted that 4,169 kanals of land in Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, and Swabi remained without proper demarcation for years. Tourism equipment worth over Rs30 million also lay unused.
Moreover, the government suffered a loss of Rs88.6 million due to delays in collecting profits on funds amounting to Rs270 million during the same fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) has decided to launch a campaign across KP against what it terms the PTI government’s corruption and mismanagement. At a working committee meeting in Peshawar chaired by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the party demanded accountability in several projects, including the Kohistan scandal, BRT project, Malam Jabba controversy, and the Billion Trees project.
