- DMA fails to recover Rs170m from advertisement companies
At a time when the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is in dire need of revenue as the authority has not enough money to pay its employees’ salaries of March, the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) has failed to collect the outstanding Rs 170 million pending with advertisement companies.
In what appears to be another setback for the CDA, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has directed CDA for details of allotment of advertisement boards of all types during last six years, it has been learnt reliably.
In another report, it was also pointed out by the FIA that the DMA of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) has failed to recover Rs 170 million from 32 defaulted advertisement agencies in last seven years.
“There are 32 advertisement companies whose licenses of the installed advertisement boards, pylons, pole-signs are expired since 2013, 14, 15 and 2016; but they haven’t paid a single penny to the authority nor did the authority act against them, ” reads FIA report, available with Pakistan Today.
The FIA stated in the report that the DMA officials were deliberately being lenient to the violators; and misusing their authority in allotment of advertisement boards and embesslement in the funds has also been discovered.
The FIA has sought the report of the advertisement agencies whom the court has issued stay orders. The FIA stated that due to malafidely by officials of DMA, appeals against any stay order has not been filed which caused a loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.
DMA Director Shahbaz Tahir Nadeem said that the ‘recovery’ against most of the agencies is in process; however, some agencies have had their matters regarding outstanding challenged in courts.
“After compiling, the record will be handed over to the FIA,” he said.
Sources close to the development claimed that some officials of DMA are indifferent to massive irregularities, as five bill boards have been installed on CDA’s land at Bahria Enclave, Park road without getting the No-Objection certificate (NOC).
“There are more than seven companies whose licenses expired years ago, but still they are bravely running their businesses as they have greased the palms of venal officers of DMA,” said an official of DMA.
Outstanding pertaining to the installation of ‘bridge-panel’ against 10 agencies included Rs 221,8378 of Adsells publicity, Rs 242,5000 of TZR SMC, Rs 1,440,000 of Medior, Rs 1,061,088 of Adwiser, Rs 15,199,000 of Al-Hassan house, Rs 2,520,000 of Real advertiser, Rs 1,254,180 of Saleem and sons, Rs 528,043 of Ravi, Rs 24,465,000 of Outdoor advertisement, and Rs 415,800 of New impact neon sign.
Unpaid of ‘tri-visions’ included Rs 6,539,978 of Ransal, Rs 2,326,140 of Retro, Rs 1,876,700 of H & H associate, Rs 7,145,820 of Digi add, Rs 9,380,335 of New impact neon, and Rs 12,295,202 of Ad zone.
Remaining of ‘pole-signs’ included Rs 1,035,792 of Adsells publicity, Rs 1,443,250 of The sign, Rs 1,092,251 of Spectrum line, Rs 1,000,626 of BTLOOH, Rs 12,330,902 of New impact neon, and Rs 19,387,871 of Ad zone.
Unpaid of ‘mopies’ included Rs 331,459 of Knap, Rs 451,579 of Ideas workshop, Rs 4,616,103 of H & H associate, Rs 2,063,040 of Horizon cross, Rs 4,920 of Butt brothers, Rs 370,285 of Fozia Rashid, Rs 2,299,612 of brand option, Rs 7,75,009 of Jillani enterprises, Rs 4,15,800 of New impact neon, Rs 1,585,026 of Ad zone, Rs 328,293 of Canvas, and Rs 7,631,186 of Ad clips.
Outstanding of “gentries’ included, Rs 2,795,345 of O & O signs, Rs 604,800 of New impact neon, and Rs 2,132,024 of Ad zone. ‘Bus-shelter’ included Rs 758,770 of Al-Hassan. ‘Roof-top’ included Rs 2,700,000 of Classic, Rs 1,100,000 of Brand option, Rs 800,000 of Asim associates.
‘Billboards’ included Rs 185,000 of Classic, and Rs 4,360,000 of Pakistan outdoor. ‘Pedestrian-bridge’ included Rs 570,240 of Ad zone, and Rs 680,892 of Canvas. ‘Flyover-bridge’ included Rs 950,400 of Ad zone. ‘LED’ included Rs 3,800,000 of Digi ads.
