Pakistan Cricket Board has a long history of controversies, and once again this board is facing criticism. In fact, an audit report has exposed a scam worth crores of rupees within the board. The Auditor General of Pakistan has exposed financial irregularities worth crores of rupees, allocation of contracts and illegal appointments in PCB. Many big revelations have been made in the report. According to this, a payment of Rs 63.39 million (Rs 6 crore 33 lakh 90 thousand) is included for the food of policemen deployed for security during international matches.
According to the report, three coaches of the under-16 age group were appointed illegally at the Karachi High Performance Centre, and Rs 5.4 million (54 lakh) was spent on their salaries. It has also exposed the irregular allotment of ticket contracts without open competition. According to the report, match officials have been paid more, which also raises suspicion of match fixing. More than 39 lakh Pakistani rupees had come to pay the officials. Apart from this, the report also talks about spending Rs 9 lakh per month on the appointment of a media director.
The last few years have been turbulent for PCB. Rameez Raja was removed from the post of chairman in December 2022. After this, Najam Sethi was the president from December 2022 to June 2023 and then Zaka Ashraf from June 2023 to 2024. Since then, Mohsin Naqvi has been holding this post. It has been said in the report that it has come to light that an additional payment of Rs 38 lakh has been made in the form of match fee. Between February and June 2024, a payment of Rs 41.7 lakh was made to the Chairman in the form of utility charges, housing payment and POL, which was unauthorized.
Questions have been raised in the report that the media director was appointed in October 2023 without any process. The advertisement for this post came on 17th August. Appointment, approval of appointment, appointment letter, signing of the agreement and joining all happened on the same day. The Auditor General has said that the money was spent without any permission or proper bidding process. He gave the example that the Punjab government had spent Rs 19.8 million (1.09 crore) on diesel for bulletproof vehicles.
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