Sindh forms committee to review local bodies and audit budgets

KARACHI: The Sindh government has constituted a committee headed by Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah to review the performance of local bodies across the province and examine complaints of illegal recruitment, budget irregularities and misuse of authority.

Nasir Hussain Shah, who chaired the committee's first meeting, said the panel was set up by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on the instructions of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Business Recorder reported. ARY News reported that Bilawal had received complaints about unlawful recruitment in corporations, district councils, town councils and union councils, along with reports of budget irregularities and the unauthorised use of power.

The minister said the complaints reached the party chairman from levels ranging from union councils up to district councils, and that Bilawal directed the chief minister to take immediate corrective measures.

The review covers union councils, towns, municipal corporations and district councils, and the committee will submit its final recommendations to the chief minister, according to Business Recorder. Besides Nasir Hussain Shah, its members are Additional Chief Secretary (Local Government) Dr Wasim Shamshad, Chief Minister's Inspection Team member Anwar Shar, Local Government Commission member Abdul Rahim Soomro and Mir Hussain Ali.

The meeting decided that every council in Sindh would be examined for illegal recruitment, irregularities in budgets, misuse of authority and other unlawful activities, and that budget audits would be carried out at the level of municipal corporations, district councils, union councils and towns. ARY News reported that the financial audit would cover all union councils in particular.

Nasir Hussain Shah said the objective was to improve the performance of municipal corporations, towns, union councils and district councils, take public facilities to people's doorsteps and resolve citizens' complaints, in line with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's directions. The measures, he said, were meant to strengthen the capacity of local government institutions and improve the delivery of public services.

Neither report gave a deadline for the committee's work. ARY News carried its report under a headline referring to corruption in Karachi local bodies, though its text, like Business Recorder's, described a province-wide review rather than one limited to the city.