Govt decides to audit ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ project

The Ministry of Climate Change has requested that the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) conduct a special audit of the National Strategic Support Unit (NSSU) of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Program (TBTTP) for the financial years 2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–22.

The Ministry of Climate Change has written an official letter to the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) for conducting special audit of Ten Billion Tsunami projects on which billions of rupees were utilised for plantation of 10 billion trees all over the country during the tenure of PTI-led government.

The official letter, written by the Ministry of Climate Change to AGP.

The latter stated that the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ project (TBTTP) is a flagship program of the government of Pakistan and is being implemented through the forest and wildlife departments of all the provinces, as well as Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

The NSSU is coordinating the program activities and monitoring project implementation by provincial/territorial forest and wildlife departments.

To ensure the program’s transparency and value for money, the Ministry of Climate Change has engaged the AGP to conduct a financial audit of the Program Office.

Although the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Project is likely to be completed in 2023, no financial audit has been conducted since the program’s inception.

The Ministry of Climate Change is supervising as well as coordinating the program activities through a Project Management Unit termed the National Strategic Support Unit (NSSU).

The National Strategic Support Unit (NSSU) of Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Project (TBTTP) is also responsible for the monitoring of project activities, being implemented by the provincial/territorial forest and wildlife departments.

To ensure transparency of the programme and value for money, it is imperative to conduct financial audit of the Programme Office, which has not been conducted so far.