The Punjab government is considering filing multitudes of corruption cases against hundreds of incumbent and former local council representatives and officials, who allegedly robbed the public exchequer of over Rs52 billion in the past eight years. “The findings of the special audit conducted in three phases of the 143 Tehsil (sub-district)Municipal Administrations (TMAs) of Punjab have been sent to the Local Government Commission established under the relevant law,” a senior Punjab government official told this correspondent. He said that the commission would examine each and every case of embezzlement and irregularity and make recommendation for registration of corruption and criminal cases against the apparently guilty TMAs chairmen and officials. The Punjab cabinet decided in April this year that a special audit of district governments and TMAs should be carried out, their record be taken over by the District Coordination Officers (DCOs) and Tehsil Municipal Officers (TMOs) and third party validation and checking of financial expenditures and execution of development schemes in the local governments be conducted by private firms since their creation in 2001. The first phase of the audit covered the period between 2006-07 and 31st March 2008, which is still underway, the second between 2004-05 and 2005-06 and the third between 2001-02 and 2003-04. So far, in the first phase special audit has been completed in 143 TMAs while the audit of one TMA is under process, in the second phase audit of 142 TMAs has been concluded. __
