ISLAMABAD: Financial discrepancies totaling over Rs63 billion have been exposed in the accounts of the postal sector under the Ministry of Communications during FY2024-25 in the latest audit disclosures.
The single largest chunk of the overall financial discrepancy stems from five distinct cases of unauthorised management of accounts with commercial banks, involving a staggering Rs42,029.278 million, according to the audit report 2025-26. This is compounded by 12 cases of major discrepancies categorised under miscellaneous heads totaling Rs20,287.122 million, and two cases of uncollected receivables and recoveries amounting to Rs1,320.072 million. Further, two cases of procurement-related violations breached regulatory frameworks to the tune of Rs74.556 million.
Beyond systemic failures, the report flags blatant vulnerabilities in everyday public money safeguards, detailing 33 cases of fraud, misappropriation, embezzlement, theft and dacoity involving public funds of Rs50.395 million. Reviewing internal controls, auditors discovered that the PPOD utilised a cash balance of Rs11.278 billion from July 2022 to June 2025 without any justification after separate functional bank accounts were opened. The report also reveals that the agency continues to draw millions of rupees from postal treasuries using primitive paper chits due to a failure to devise an official mechanism for imprest money.
Additional financial anomalies include receipts of Rs3,171.333 million and payments of Rs2,134.464 million wrongly listed as negative balances, a non-capitalised asset expenditure of Rs145.029 million leading to a frozen fixed asset valuation of Rs1,394.787 million, and an unadjusted sum of Rs7,289.479 million under inland money orders.
The operational cash flow of the postal sector remains in a critical downward spiral, suffering an overall deficit of Rs19,321.991 million for FY2024-25. This represents a sharp 43.88 percent increase of Rs5,892.110 million over the previous year’s deficit, driven by escalating expenditures of Rs30,355.985 million against actual revenue receipts of just Rs11,033.994 million. Over a five-year timeline, the sector’s deficit has continuously worsened from Rs12,223 million in 2020-21, dropping briefly to Rs2,665 million in 2021-22, before climbing steadily to Rs11,150 million in 2022-23 and Rs13,501 million in 2023-24. The latest expenditure total notably includes Rs6,000 million meant for clearing pending utility company liabilities, alongside an outstanding recovery balance of Rs1,421.610 million in advances from employees.
The audit team highlighted that although total recoveries of Rs7,662.726 million were formally pointed out, only a fraction, Rs1,885.557 million, was successfully retrieved and verified during the January to December 2025 cycle. While the department has taken minor corrective steps, such as depositing Rs3.26 billion of retained pension funds back into the Federal Consolidated Fund, deep administrative backlogs persist.
The report concludes that weak planning, lack of IT integration and missing internal controls have completely diluted the benefits of the Public Finance Management Act of 2019. This widespread institutional inertia has ultimately left the ministry with an unresolved backlog of non-compliance directives from the Public Accounts Committee stretching back from 1987 to 2020.
The rigorous examination, finalised following Departmental Accounts Committee meetings held from December 2 to 4, 2025, details widespread structural breakdowns, unauthorised banking practices and embezzlement within the Pakistan Post Office Department and Postal Life Insurance Company Limited. The Directorate General of Audit, Postal and Telecommunication Services, Lahore, conducted the oversight with a budgetary allocation of Rs235 million and a human resource pool of 66 officers who utilised 4,017 man-days to audit 179 formations. The audit team scrutinised total expenditures and receipts of Rs31,292.415 million and Rs16,020.954 million respectively, uncovering deep systemic irregularities across multiple operations.
