Karachi: Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ehsan Mani has admitted that financial discrepancies to the tune of around Rs 200 crores had been found in the audit of the first two editions of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly on Wednesday, Mani faced a tough time fielding queries from the members who were offended when he claimed that the PCB is an autonomous body and he didn’t personally look into every audit report.
In remarks before the committee and later to the media, Mani admitted that there were financial bungling in the first two editions of the PSL to the tune of some 200 crores rupees. The PAC has told the PCB chairman to complete a departmental inquiry/audit of the financial discrepancies in the PSL and submit a report to it within a month.
According to the Auditor General of Pakistan’s office, which carried out an audit of the first two editions, the financial discrepancies happened because of unauthorised payments to the five franchises from the central pool of revenues. Allegations also emerged at the PAC that perhaps some of the franchises were undersold at the launch of the PSL due to which the PCB suffered a loss of around 1.1 million dollars.
PAC chairman, Rana Tanvir reminded Mani that since he was heading a institution he was responsible for everything that happened in the past or present in the board. Rana also told Mani that the PCB will have to give details and explanation for every paisa spent by the board to the PAC and AG office.
The committee also looked at the special audit carried out by the auditor general’s office of the first two editions of the PSL in which the financial issues have cropped up. Later Mani told the media that he had already pinpointed out to the franchise owners that their financial models had issues and needed to be improved.
He admitted that some financial discrepancies had been pinpointed in the audit report of the first two editions but the experts and PAC were now looking at the matter. The current six franchises of the PSL have taken the PCB to the Lahore High Court to have the PSL financial model changed.
Hearings have been held since yesterday on the franchisees petition which claims that while they have suffered losses of billions of rupees in the last five years the PCB has made big profits because of the financial model employed by the PCB.
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