The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been involved in financial embezzlement, mismanagement and irregularities amounting to Rs 117 billion in the accounts of the cash-strapped authority during the outgoing fiscal year 2012-13.
The audit reports issued by the Auditor General’s Office regarding audit paras for the financial year 2012-13 has disclosed 78 audit objections on the CDA accounts out of which 50 audit paras were related to irregularities and non-compliance.
Solely responsible for development in the capital nine of the audit paras encircle poor performance, 17 regarding internal control weaknesses and two highlighted the non-provision of record by the authority. As per audit reports the Member Estate of CDA , last year created 800 additional plots in capital’s I-8 Sector as well as creating 3,187 plots in sector G-10, G-11, I-10, I-11, D-12 and E-12 of Islamabad. The member estate allotted the particular plots to CDA employees and those on deputation in excess of five percent permissible quota. The report also mentioned that the authority, failed in recovering amount worth Rs 672 million regarding premium of land from Pak-Gulf Construction and National Logistic Cell (NLC).
CDA made out of turn allotment to husbands and wives of CDA employees worth Rs112.53 million whereas, plots worth Rs 20.2 billion were allotted in the developed sectors. CDA faced losses of Rs 6.223 billion due to encroachment on the CDA land by the Marriott Hotel, Serena Hotel, Shifa International Hospital and Capital View Point at Pir Sohawa.
The corruption watchdogs have found that CDA refused to accept the lowest bid worth Rs 5.53 billion by M/s Siteco for replacement of streetlights with LED lights and warded contract to the second lower bidder M/s Oslo. The CDA also failed to recover Rs 4.51 billion of lease extension of commercial plots in various sectors despite expiry of their respective leases. Moreover, the CDA faced loss worth Rs 2.05 billion by accepting the auction bid at lesser rates without open auction of six commercial plots in Blue Area in June last year.
The audit found that CDA auctioned plots to the pre-qualified firms through limited competition and received Rs 300,000 per square yard against Rs433, 000 per square yard coming from the open auction of a plot in the same period. CDA approved a layout plan of a housing society owned by a real estate tycoon and issued no objection certificate (NoC) without transferring 488.69 kanals land reserved for amenities to the CDA. The report also pointed out wasteful expenditure of Rs77.94 million on walk-in-aviary as the CDA failed to complete the project despite a voluntary lapse of 36 months failing to generate any revenue from the project.
