KARACHI: Despite severe shortage of human resources and data accessibility constraints, the Directorate of Post Clearance Audit (PCA), Karachi headed by Gul Rehman since January 01, 2015 has been able to detect an amount over Rs1.0 billion as evasion of duty and taxes.

PCA Karachi is facing acute shortage of experienced and dedicated supervisory/operational staff as only three Assistant / Deputy Directors are working in this Directorate as against the sanctioned strength of seven. Similarly there is only one Principal Appraiser (PA) against sanctioned strength of three whereas two Appraising Officers against sanctioned strength of ten are working in this Directorate.

Further, out of two Inland Revenue Audit Officers (IRAO) working in this Directorate against the sanctioned strength of four, one has been assigned the task of DDO. Further, against the sanctioned strength of eleven Auditors, no Auditor has been posted to this Directorate.

It may be mentioned here that PCA carries out assigned audits besides shouldering huge work load of litigation cases which needs attendance at different Adjudication forums, Collector Appeals, Appellate Tribunals and even advocates for cases pending in Honorable High Courts.

Moreover, WeBOC module has not yet been fully operationalized to support complete audit system. The Directorate, therefore, is still carrying out audit work manually.

Sources said that PCA was almost dormant till the beginning of January 2015 and the office of Director PCA Karachi had become a ‘dead posting’ which no officer was willing to assume.

However, after Gul Rehman assumed the office of Director PCA, Karachi, there has been a fast-track turn around and PCA is becoming a vibrant directorate.

Only in six months, the Directorate detected huge amount of revenue leakage as well as several operational and technical reforms were implemented resolving accessibility issues.

The officers of the Directorate were tasked to personally examine all the available record of the PCA commencing from Year 2009 till date and enter the same in MS Excel Format. The officers of the Directorate in the first instance entered the data starting from the Case file Number, Audit Observation Number, Contravention Report Number, Show Cause Notice Number, Brief Facts of the case, PCT, details of Duties and taxes involved therein.

The task of computerization of record was initiated immediately on assuming the charge by Gul Rehman as Director. As the available staff lacked online audit techniques in the WeBOC audit module. The audit staff has been made familiarized with the online audit techniques. Now they are able to conduct audit in the PCA WeBOC Audit Module.

Moreover, the configuration issue in the ID of Director PCA in coordination with WeBOC development team has been resolved and now the Director PCA can select GDs for audit through selectivity criteria.