The revelation came out in the audit report and related documents about misappropriation of billions of rupees in annual maintenance budget of National Highway Authority (NHA), reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

As per the documents, NHA officials embezzled funds worth Rs13.08 billion across the country.

Documents further disclosed that only Rs2.98 billion are provided to the NHA for emergency expenditures, but the NHA officials illegally used funds of more than Rs9 billion along with the allocated amount, the audit report showed.

NHA authorities paid more than Rs9 billion towards on account of previous expenditure during 2018-19, after which the Authority had awarded repair projects 40 percent less than the estimated cost, which led to the substandard repair work.

The maintenance programme of the NHA was affected for the two years as the commissioner kept making previous payments, the report revealed.

Due to untimely repair of the national highways, the quality has deteriorated, the report further revealed.

The audit authorities sought a report on misappropriation of funds from the Principal Accounting Officer of NHA along with certificates from the NHA for projects awarded at lower estimated cost.

The NHA officials submitted the certificates related to previous payments.

Reporter Tayyab Saif