The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts at yesterday's meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban started discussing Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) office's audit report on the overpayment.

Finance Secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan yesterday sought one month's time from the committee for submitting a report on the allegation, sources said.

The CAG report said the central bank in FY 1997-98 fixed salary structure and gave time scale to its staff through wrong explanation of the government order and thus made an additional payment of Tk 3.20 crore.

Spending the amount should be considered as a loss of public money, the report added.

The central bank, however, in its reply to the CAG office said it had fixed salary structure and time scale in line with the decision of the bank's board of directors.

The parliamentary committee Chairman Harun Al Rashid said at the meeting that no government organisation is beyond accountability, especially in case of spending public money.

The committee also started looking into several audit objections against Bangladesh Railway and Sadharan Bima Corporation.

However, due to busy schedule of the secretaries to the three ministries concerned, the committee postponed detailed discussion on the issues for the next meeting.