Result of inept performance?: Government mulls over abolishing CADD

Official says issue discussed at recent meeting of secretaries.


Riazul Haq January 18, 2015
In 2011 and 2013, CADD’s abolishment and transfer of all its departments to respective ministries was recommended but the then prime minister rejected the proposal due to some ‘specific reasons’. DESIGN: ESSA MALIK

ISLAMABAD:


The federal government is mulling over abolishing the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) after taking into consideration its poor performance since establishment in 2011, according to official sources.


After devolution of power under the 18th Amendment, the federal government established the CADD as a ministry but later turned it into a division, headed by a state minster.

Initially, around 20 departments, previously working under the ministries of education, culture, special education, youth affairs and tourism, were placed under the division.



Later, other departments including the Social Welfare and Child Welfare Development, the Federal Government Polytechnic Institute of Women, the departments of libraries, archaeology and museums, population, Zakat and Ushr, the Training and Education and Rehabilitation of Disabled and Charitable Endowment for Federal Area and other departments were also put under it.

With the passage of time, some of the departments working under the CADD, showed ‘pathetic’ performance and were reverted to other relevant ministries and divisions.

A senior official at the Cabinet Secretariat confirmed that the issue of abolishing CADD came under discussion at a recently held meeting of a sub-committee of secretaries, which delved on summaries and files, which recommend handing over almost 22 subjects to different ministries and divisions.

At the secretaries’ sub-committee meeting, subjects such as the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and the Inter-Board Committee of Chairperson were left for further discussion while the rest were discussed, said an official.

“We left the two subjects for further discussion considering the fact that the government may abolish the CADD,” said the official who attended the meeting.

“The option of abolishing the CADD is on the cards to improve the performance of different departments currently working under it,” said the official at the Cabinet Secretariat, while talking about underperforming departments.

After the 18th Amendment, the federal capital is being run under three parallel systems — the CADD, the Capital Development Authority and the Ministry of Interior — and overlapping of power at some places has consistently been a bone of contention between these systems.



The CADD has seen around 11 secretaries since its inception while half of them were transferred to it three to four months prior to their retirement.

“We often joke that it’s the division of tired bureaucrats who want a relaxed posting before retirement,” said a former secretary who served at the CADD before retirement.

“The CADD has been the worst in terms of enforcing and ensuring quality education in the federal capital,” said an official at the FDE, which looks after 422 schools and colleges that fall under the CADD.

In 2011 and 2013, CADD’s abolishment and transfer of all its departments to respective ministries was recommended but the then prime minister rejected the proposal due to some ‘specific reasons’.

“I am also hearing the same thing but my appointment by the government shows that it will take time if anything like this is happening,” said the newly appointed CADD Secretary Khalid Hanif when asked if the government is contemplating doing away with the division.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2015.

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