PIPFA to impart training to ECP officers under MoU

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Institute of Public Finance Accountants (PIPFA) would impart capacity-building training to the officers of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) assigned to audit and accounts. On this count, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has recently been signed between the ECP and PIPFA following a meeting between Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and Sajid Hussain, the Chairman Board of Studies (BoS) at PIPFA. The MoU envisages the imparting of capacity-building training to the ECP’s Political Finance Wings’ officers who deal with audit and accounts. In an official statement, the CEC has termed as “an important milestone” the signing of the MoU between the two sides, which, according to him, would help strengthen the capabilities of the ECP’s Political Finance Wing officers in line with their official responsibilities. The Political Finance is an important wing of the ECP that has been “effectively strengthened” in recent years, he said. The chairman BoS PIPFA said that PIPFA was established in the year 1993 jointly by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP), the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) and the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP). The professional accountants affiliated with PIPFA are rendering services related to audit and accounts in more than 500 organisations of Pakistan, he said. It merits a mention here that the ECP’s Political Finance Wing mainly deals with the wealth statements annually submitted by the lawmakers, and the political parties, for the previous financial year. However, the submission of these statements is regarded as a ceremonial exercise amidst lack of well-defined laws for the electoral body’s Political Finance Wing to proceed against tax, audit, accounts or finance-related discrepancies in the related wealth statements. But, the poll body can issue notices to those political parties or legislators who fail to submit the required wealth statements, and can proceed against them accordingly in the light of relevant laws if they continue to fail in submitting the said statements. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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