• Says constitutional procedure followed, reports submitted to president via PM
• Audit had flagged over Rs375tr in financial irregularities, loss of public money, ineffective public investments
ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) on Monday rejected media reports alleging errors and miscalculations in its audit reports released last month, which had highlighted more than Rs375 trillion in financial irregularities, loss of public money and lack of intended impact of public investments.
“AGP rejects allegations of errors in audit reports,” said a statement issued by the Department of the Auditor General of Pakistan (DAGP). It added that the office “strongly rejected recent media reports alleging miscalculations in the federal audit reports, terming them entirely unfounded and misleading.”
The DAGP also denied that the reports had been released bypassing the constitutional process, which requires their submission to the president and then laying before parliament.
According to the statement, the audit reports, appropriation accounts and financial statements for the fiscal year 2023-24 were duly submitted to the president and routed through the prime minister, strictly in line with constitutional provisions and the Rules of Business 1973. “The president approved the submission, and the reports were subsequently transmitted to both houses of parliament,” it said.
The DAGP explained that as the supreme audit institution of the country, it functions under a constitutional mandate laid down in Articles 168 to 171 of the Constitution.
Article 171 states: “The reports of the Auditor General relating to the accounts of the Federation shall be submitted to the President, who shall cause them to be laid before both Houses of Majlis-i-Shoora (parliament). The reports relating to the accounts of a Province shall be submitted to the Governor of the Province, who shall cause them to be laid before the Provincial Assembly.”
The statement further said that the approval of the reports from the president was duly communicated through the President’s Secretariat on April 12, 2025. Following this, the required number of federal audit reports were printed for laying before both houses of parliament.
On the AGP’s request, the motions were included in the National Assembly’s Orders of the Day issued on August 13, 2025. However, the National Assembly Secretariat, through its deputy secretary (legislation), informed the same day that the assembly session had been prorogued. As a result, the motion for laying the reports could not be included in the Orders of the Day.
The secretariat further asked that the reports be collected from the legislation branch, with due observance of confidentiality until they are formally laid before the house. “It is further clarified that the audit reports transmitted to the Senate remain in the custody of the Senate Secretariat,” it added.
Based on this record, the DAGP said: “The news currently circulating in different sections of print media alleging miscalculations in the audit reports and claiming that these reports were returned to the Department of the Auditor-General of Pakistan by the National Assembly Secretariat are entirely unfounded and misleading.”
It stressed that the audit reports, appropriation accounts and financial statements were sent to the NA Secretariat after the president’s approval on the prime minister’s advice to lay them before both houses of parliament.
Defending the integrity of its audit findings, the AGP asserted that the reports were prepared after proper quality assurance and “did not contain any errors”. It explained that the figures cited in the media came only from the executive summary of the consolidated federal audit report for 2024-25, which is prepared as a reference document to help stakeholders access and review sector-wise findings.
Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2025
