- The company awarded ‘diplomatic shuttle service’ was not even registered, committee orders investigation
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) appeared at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing.
CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal was present at the National Assembly Secretariat to answer the questions of the committee. The audit officers told PAC that various formations of the CDA illegally spent Rs 125 million.
Answering the allegation, Afzal said that an expenditure of Rs 100 million have been sorted out and insisted that Rs 16 million were spent as per rules and regulations.
Answering the question pertaining to the machinery pool organisation who gave its equipment to other departments and those departments still owed CDA Rs 170 million in dues, Afzal said that the CDA has received Rs 110 million from the departments concerned and will soon get the remaining amount as well.
During the meeting, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials told the CDA officials that sending of one paragraph would not help. The NAB demanded the whole record pertaining to financial wrongdoings in the authority as soon as possible.
The PAC members also expressed their disapproval on CDA’s failure to bring the culprits to book, who practiced irregularities in allotment of plots, despite the passage of 14 years. The committee also regretted that the CDA itself is involved in constructing structures on greenbelt. The members ordered investigation against officers involved.
The audit officers told the committee that the contract awarded to a company for running shuttle service was not even registered. The PAC ordered an inquiry into the matter that how and with whose connivance the company ran the service for seven years without being a registered entity.
It has been observed that during the sessions of PAC, many illegalities and irregularities have come under discussion. The CDA authorities have become indifferent as inquiries that are being ordered, documents that are demanded to be furnished and officials who are questioned have become a routine matter for Islamabad’s civic authority.
