Billion Tree Allegations.

The auditor general of Pakistan has discovered over Rs 3.49 billion in irregularities during the three-year special audit of the PTI flagship 10-Billion Tree Tsunami Project (BTTP). While this is not the first time this initiative has come under the scrutiny of authorities, the revelations of overspending and fraud far exceed anything that one could have conceived.

According to reports, approximately Rs 1.25 billion in expenditures were declared irregular, wasteful, unlawful and unnecessary. The scale of irregularities is alarming considering how around 199 advance audit paras have exposed fake and excessive reporting by the staff, putting a question mark on the transparency of the project. For instance, for the land allocated for these plantations, the GPS measurement showed an over-claimed area which resulted in a loss of Rs 305.523 million to the national exchequer. Similarly, several forest divisions fictitiously claimed plantation activities in different areas, overlapping the areas under the BTTP. Furthermore, uncertified and ungraded seeds obtained from unauthentic sources not only caused Rs109.365 million losses to the government but also increased the failure chances.

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This is not an instance of one or two...

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