ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) on Thursday refused to accept the exemption certificate issued by two former finance ministers to the civilian secret service Intelligence Bureau (IB).
AGP Javaid Jehangir said section 17, used to exempt the institution, is “prima facie in conflict with the constitutional provisions and decisions of the Supreme Court,” seeking its removal from the AGP’s Ordinance 2001, local media reported.
Under section 17, former finance ministers Ishaq Dar and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had given audit exemptions to the IB.
While section 17 empowers the federal government to give out the exemption certificate due to funds being used for national security, the AGP said the certificate needs to be issued by the federal Cabinet, not the finance minister.
In June 2016, then-Finance Minister Dar told the National Assembly that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the IB were the only two departments still using secret service funds. 
Upon acquiring legal powers to exempt the secret service expenses from audits, he amended section 17 through the Finance Act 2013.
But in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the AGP is not only authorized but obliged to see access to all federal and provincial government records, as well as all entities established by, or under the control of, the federal and provincial governments, “regardless of the designation of such records as secret or otherwise.”
The most recent exemption certificate was issued in February 2018, when Abbasi exempted the IB from the audit of 1.93 billion Pakistani rupees ($15.89 million) in secret service expenditures for the fiscal year 2016-17. He also certified that the IB has 2.3 billion rupees in balance until the end of the fiscal year.