ISLAMABAD: The government has asked the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) to conduct an audit of the Billion Tree Tsunami Project launched by the PTI government.
The Ministry of Climate Change has formally asked the AGP to conduct a special audit of the ‘National Strategic Assistance Unit of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Program (TBTTP), Phase 1, Upscaling of the Green Pakistan Program (Revised)’.
The former Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), during his visit to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of NAB, revealed that the TBTTP is being probed by the Bureau.
A tsunami worth billions is being implemented through the respective forest and wildlife departments in all provinces including Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The ministry is monitoring the program through a project management unit called the National Strategic Support Unit (NSSU) of the Billion Tree Tsunami.
According to the ministry, “In order to ensure transparency and value for money of the programme, it is imperative to conduct a financial audit of the Program Office which has not been conducted so far, as the program is likely to be completed in 2023… A Please Financial To conduct a special audit of NSSU- Billion Tree Tsunami for the years 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-22.
Climate ministry says it will bring transparency
Sources said that AGP Ajmal Gondal is giving priority to this audit and he will personally supervise the audit teams. Earlier in January this year, the PTI government had announced that third-party audit reports on the tsunami of billions of trees were being released soon.
The government claimed that this innovative program not only created an expanded supply of plants, but also created a whopping 500,000 green jobs.
According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), large-scale restoration initiatives such as the Ten Billion Project are central to Pakistan’s efforts to support the United Nations Decade and enhance ecosystem restoration.
Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Bloomberg estimates that only 5 percent of the country has forest cover against the global average of 31 percent, making it one of the six countries most vulnerable to climate change.
According to a UNDP report, Pakistan is particularly vulnerable due to increased variability of the monsoon, dwindling Himalayan glaciers and extreme events including floods and droughts. Their impact will increase food and water insecurity.
This is a problem that the Government of Pakistan is aware of and is giving immediate attention to. In addition to the tsunami of billions of trees, the government is committed to increasing its protected areas by 15 percent by 2023 (in 2018 they stood at 12 percent and today they are over 13 percent).
Published in Dawn, June 30, 2022