A parliamentary panel on Wednesday directed the National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Javed Iqbal Awan to transfer all those employees who have been sitting on their posts from the last two years.
During the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Communication held here in the Parliament House and chaired by Senator Daud Khan Achakzai, the participants expressed annoyance over the slow pace of work on development projects in the country especially in Balochistan where projects had been delayed for several years.
The committee observed that officials had been sitting on their seats for many years and had established their monopoly which was affecting the business of the organisation. These officials especially those belonging to the maintenance section had established personal relationships with small contractors and were involved in delaying development work, the committee added. Legislators recommended to the officials of the Communication Ministry to adopt in build mechanism in the ministry to keep a proper check and balance system within the department. They also said that lack of check and balance in the NHA was affecting the everyday business of the organisation. The authority should establish a monitoring system within the department, added the legislators.
The committee also recommended that transfers in the maintenance section should be carried out on rotation basis.
Furthermore, the legislators showed annoyance over the slow pace of work in Balochistan where development projects had been pending from the last several years, while saying that the officials concerned were only giving verbal statements and were not taking any practical steps. They said that minerals and fruits were being transported from the remote areas of the provinces and in the absence of better road facilities these things could not be transported to other areas of the country which deprived the farmers from earning a respectable livelihood.
Senator Zahid said that the NHA officers were delaying work by citing security reasons, adding that if there was any security threat, than the NHA should hand over these projects to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) as they could better manage the projects. He said that several projects were lingering on from one year to another but not a single contractor had been blacklisted so far, adding that those contractors who had left incomplete projects in one province were given a new project in another province.
