PAC grills PSO chief over oil spill incident
The committee met under the chairmanship of Junaid Akbar Khan which took notice on an application of Jamshed Dasti and observed it as major negligence.
Secretary Petroleum Division while expressing ignorance about the incident, termed it a major negligence and recommended formation of an independent multi-stakeholders' inquiry committee which could also find out whether other criminality including theft was involved in it or not.
The PSO MD informed the committee on 23rd August 2024, an oil spill incident occurred at JIMCO, while taking HSD receipt from PAPCO.
After taking 1st receipt in tank 803, line up was developed for tank 818 and receipt was started for 2nd parcel. But receipt valve of 803 remained open, and tank overflowed which occurred during the Friday prayer break. Upon identification of issue, pumping was immediately stopped from PAPCO and retrieval process was started with bets efforts and available resources. The spilled quantity was 1,190,967 litres of HSD. After initial retrieval and reconciliation in August 2024, 167,313 litre have been retrieved subsequently.
He further said that an internal enquiry was conducted and punitive action was taken against five employees along with termination of service and Rs41 million was recovered. Moreover, GM Operation was also demoted and removed from the department. PSO's share of loss was Rs187.9 million.
However, the committee rejected the report while raising questions on the selection criteria for the environmental audit. It also rejected the report of PSO and the Ministry of Petroleum on the matter and asked what impact it had on the environment. It asked what input was taken from the EPA, on which the officials were unable to respond. The committee referred the matter to a sub-committee for investigation.
The committee also took audit objections regarding Pakistan Post Office. An unauthorised use of funds of Rs4 billion by the Post Office was revealed. The committee said that the matter should be resolved within three months.
The committee revealed that NADRA has been occupying the State Bank building in Islamabad for 25 years.
The committee was informed that during audit of State Bank of Pakistan, Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC), Islamabad for the year 2020-21 and 2021-22, it was observed that NADRA occupied building of SBP-BSC, Islamabad in year 2000, without any agreement and payment of rent.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) convened several meetings to resolve the issue between SBP and NADRA, in which, it was decided that compensation charges @ Rs7.00 per sq ft will be paid by NADRA and NCD to SBP since occupation till year 2003 and thereafter with enhancement as per provision of Rent Restriction Ordinance, 2000.
However, it was observed that Rs20.961 million (124,770 sq ft @ Rs7.000 per sq ft @ 24 months) for the year 2020-21 and 2021-22 was not recovered by the management nor the space was vacated by NADRA till date.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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