Islamabad, Sep 18: Significant anomalies in the Contributory Provident Fund (CPF) of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) were discovered in a recent audit report, raising questions about how employee benefits are managed. The purpose of the CPF is to give PTA personnel financial stability upon retirement. The Auditor General of Pakistan’s audit revealed irregularities in the CPF’s management.
The PTA Employees Service Regulations (ESR) 2004 state that employees must match the CPF’s five percent basic pay contribution with an equal contribution from the PTA. Nevertheless, the audit discovered that the PTA neglected to turn over to the Public Account or give the employees their share of the Rs. 70.5 million cumulative profit gained on the CPF throughout the 2022–2023 financial year.
The PESR 2004, which requires that employees receive their share of CPF profits upon retirement, was broken by the PTA’s activities, as the audit report pointed out. The audit team also found it unsustainable that the PTA had decided to count the CPF earnings as part of its other income.
The PTA management responded to the audit findings by stating that the profit had been turned over to the Federal Consolidation Fund (FCF) and recorded in the Financial Statements. The audit team countered that this was not acceptable in the absence of a developed methodology.
The Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) gave the PTA six months to correct the accounting treatment and procedure of the CPF profit after discussing the issue at its meeting on December 20, 2023. The implementation of DAC recommendations has been proposed by the Pakistani Auditor General as a means of addressing anomalies and guaranteeing openness in the CPF management.
