ISLAMABAD: One of the closest erstwhile aides of Imran Khan Tuesday urged the Election Commission of Pakistan to take notice of PTI’s Special Audit Report and order a NAB or FIA team to probe alleged corruption and gross law abuses in handling the party accounts.

Babar, who is PTI founding member and ex-central vice president, approached this correspondent to share his views with regard to the so-called audit and Imran’s desire for fairness and transparency in each and every matter while conveniently closing his eyes on what was happening under his nose.

He backed Imran’s demands for transparency and accountability in public matters but charged that PTI chief’s demands sounded hollow in view of his continued refusal to hold the allegedly corrupt PTI office-bearers accountable. Babar parted ways with the party after the PTI chairman declined to listen to him for accountability and transparency in party matters.

The ex-confidant of Imran noted that when the PTI leader demanded during the Sunday rally the accountability (jaza or saza) of those behind the electoral fraud, those in the PTI directly responsible for intra-party electoral fraud sat next to him.

“When the PTI chairman states that a corrupt leadership elected through fraud cannot deliver, by the same token he is surrounded by a corrupt coterie against whom serious corruption allegations have evoked no independent inquiry or action from Imran,” he noted.

Babar reminded the PTI chairman that in August 2011, he had pointed out in writing with words that “the PTI Central Office is infested with corruption” and later demanded an independent accountability commission should be formed to investigate serious allegations of corruption within the PTI.

He said in March 2013, to avoid public disclosures that might have had hurt the PTI election campaign, the PTI chairman agreed to initiate a special audit. Babar said that despite truncating the scope of the special audit to donations only without any audit of expenses, the special audit report was an indictment and an FIR against the tall claims of internal transparency by the PTI leadership.

Babar pointed out that the special audit was stalled for several months while false statements were made about the status of the audit. For example in August 2013, Imran stated in a news story by The News Group Editor Shaheen Sehbai dated August 8, 2013 that “we already have the preliminary report and I can assure you that there is no sign of any wrongdoing”.

Another PTI spokesman, he continued, stated that “the party had a special audit conducted just to lay these accusations to rest. Upon completion of the audit no irregularities have been found in the PTI accounts and we will be publishing this audit report soon”. Both the statements were false and hollow as no interim or preliminary report was ever issued by the auditor, he claimed and added that in fact a senior PTI official even tried to offer the auditor future business, which could be ascribed as offering a bribe to the auditor while conducting an audit. Babar said the special audit report of donations made it crystal clear that the PTI accounts were not maintained transparently and according to law. He demanded that the PTI is public entity run on public donations and hence should be fully transparent and accountable. Thereunder are some excerpts from the special audit report: “We were not allowed to take photocopies of bank statements along with other data including financial statements with us.

These were shown to us but no record was allowed to be retained by us. “We observed that there were no segregation of duties regarding cash receipts within the accounts department. We observed that Accounts Manager was handling cash and was responsible for recording it also. In addition to this, we noted that the person who was introduced at the start of our assignment as Internal Auditor later during our assignment was appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). “Also, no authorisation, no vouchers relating to donation, was available in evidence to review the work done by Accounts Manager. Both of the above were noticed in the case of transactions in general and especially in case of donations received through employees. As regards conflict of interest, it is felt that CFB should have disassociated the finance team from the assignment in the course of the audit. On account of inherent risk of cash, leads us to the conclusion that the internal control system was not well designed.”

The report says: “Although the instructions were to receive the money by wire, and no such amount was received through wire, we were informed that majority of money was received through cash, but no evidence of person handing over the money, in shape of CNIC or signature was retained as directed by CFB. “During the course of our engagement, we also observed that reconciliation provided to us was not either signed by the preparer, reviewer nor the secretary finance or any member of the then CFB. It is to be noted that neither the then CFB nor finance team asked respective employees to submit a reconciliation of amounts received and deposited as per CFB approval. Also, no minutes of the CFB meetings were provided in which these transactions were discussed.” The report points out the board resolution was dated July 01, 2011, however, some of the identified transactions relate to the period earlier than this date. The resolution did not explain to the Board any reason for such transactions. All of these reveal the lack of review procedures to ensure accountability among employees who have been given the responsibility of handling donations. Needless to add that the lack of system could be associated to employees but for the then CFB members, it seems it would be more appropriate to say that they had no accounting background. “We are of the view that employees were not able to justify the amounts deposited in their personal bank accounts beyond their known and documented source of income other than monies received on the Party’s behalf.” The audit reports says: “It is to be noted that first of all, proper receipt acknowledgment were to be provided by the accounts department. Secondly, this was only restricted to monies wired into employee accounts.

Both the above conditions were not fulfilled. In addition to the above, a summary of donations was to be provided to all members of the CFB and its secretary, which as we have been informed has not been done. “Further, the above referred CFB resolution was dated July 01, 2011, however, the identified transactions relate to the period earlier than this date. The above referred resolution did not explain to the CFB any reason for such transactions. It is to be noted that neither the then CFB nor finance team asked respective employees to submit a reconciliation of amounts receipts and deposited as per Board approval. The performance was not monitored in the light of the strategy given by the CFB.

“We had pointed out to CFO, finance team and later to the CFB in our meeting dated August 27, 2013 that a complete reconciliation should have been made at the time of transfers. No such reconciliation was provided to us at the time, we raised our observation. “Review of bank statements of accounts of PTI employees managing PTI accounts was made and the concerned employees were provided opportunity to explain the amounts deposited in their personal bank accounts beyond their known and documented sources of income. In this regard, we initially identified an amount of unusual credits of Rs19 million, other than monies received on the Party’s behalf as donations, in the personal bank accounts of employees which could not be reconciled. “It is worth noting here that we circularised KASB Bank Limited only as we were not allowed to write letters to other banks in which employees had accounts. All the bank statements of employee accounts were provided by the employees on their own in the shape of photocopies.”

Concluding excerpt reads: “Because the above procedures do not constitute either an audit or a review made in accordance with International Standards on Auditing or International Standards on Review Engagements, we do not express any assurance on donation receipt for the period covered in our assignment. Had we performed additional procedures or had we performed an (annual) audit or review of the financial statements in accordance with International standards on Auditing or International Standards on Review Engagements, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported to you.” When this correspondent tried to get viewpoint of the party and contacted PTI Central Information Secretary Shireen Mazari, she did not attend the call and also did not reply to the SMS sent on her cell phone.