PM Flood Relief Fund to be audited by private firm to ensure transparency

• PM Shehbaz to get relief fund audited by AGPR, private audit. 
• "They will audit all the incoming and outgoing funds and where and how the money is spent," he says.
• He also announces that audit reports will be made public.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Saturday announced that the federal government has decided to get the PM Flood Relief Fund audited by the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) and a private audit firm of global standing.

Taking to Twitter, the prime minister said that the decision was made as he made a commitment to ensure transparency. 

"They will audit all the incoming and outgoing funds and where and how the money is spent," wrote PM Shehbaz. 

He further said that the audit reports will be made public. 

The prime minister established a relief fund last month to help the people affected by the floods and appealed to the public to contribute. 

The prime minister also expressed gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping for increasing his country's assistance package from the initial RMB100 million to RMB400 million for the people affected by floods.

"This is a reflection of our unique bond of friendship," said the premier, adding that this support will help provide much-needed relief to the people.

Earlier today, Pakistan vowed to bring back "normalcy" and provide relief to the affected people after deadly floods killed more than 1,200 and destroyed millions of homes.

In a press conference at the National Flood Response and Coordination Centre, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal called on the international community to support Pakistan and assured the nation that the government — supported by its functionaries — would leave "no stone unturned" to bring normalcy back at the earliest possible time.

The planning minister also called on the international community to ensure that their resolve for support to Pakistan remains undeterred as the scale of the disaster warrants a major humanitarian response.