OPF earns opprobrium over incomplete housing schemes
PAC orders inquiry into allotment of land to BoG members
PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD:
Its mission statement says the Overseas Pakistani Foundation (OPF) looks after interests of the citizens working or settled abroad but in reality it has shattered their confidence through half-done jobs with regard to housing schemes it started decades ago.
Islamabad Zone-V is one such scheme whose foundation stone was laid decades back by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) late chairperson Nusrat Bhutto but the scheme is still incomplete. Interestingly, the OPF has not held any departmental inquiry into the delay despite facing loss of billions of rupees.
This was revealed on Tuesday during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, in which Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development’s Secretary Khizar Hayat Khan recommended to refer the case to National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
“This is not an ordinary matter and earned us bad name,” he said while responding to the PAC’s queries.
The OPF was established under the Emigration Ordinance, 1979 and registered as a company under the Companies Act, 1913. The affairs of the foundation are run by a board of governors (BoG) with the minister in charge as its chairman.
The OPF Managing Director Habibur Rehman Khan gave several reasons for the long delay but had no justification for not initiating departmental inquiry. During a discussion on the OPF accounts, the PAC was apprised that the OPF had launched 11 schemes all across the country but almost all of them were incomplete.
When the committee looked at other audit paras, it learnt that the management had not provided auditors annual audited accounts for the year 2013-14 and 2014-15. They revealed irregularities like allotment of plots by some BoG members and delay in construction of a girls college in Islamabad.
In July 1996, six BoG members – Yawar Zia, Zaheer Ahmed, Syed Mehar Badshah, Sibte Yahya Naqvi, AZK Sherdil and Abdul Hayee – allotted to themselves plots in the scheme. Later, the matter was reported to the management on December 4, 2010, which withdrew the allotment and cancelled the letters.
“The matter was reported after 14 years. Was the allotment decision of the BOG not a crime?” a PAC member Mehmood Khan Achakzai asked the secretary. Later the PAC directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate the matter.
Meanwhile, the PAC ruled that it would conduct investigations behind the undue delay in construction of Girls College in Sector F-11/2 of Islamabad that caused a loss of Rs8.58 million.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had allotted a plot measuring 4.10 acres to the OPF Girls College on 33 years lease basis extendable for two subsequent terms. However, due to delay in construction, extension charges amounting Rs8.583 million were paid to the CDA. Moreover, due to non-payment of premium on time, delayed payment charges of Rs1.103 million were also imposed.
The committee also took a serious notice of the OPF’s efforts to go for a joint venture for construction of the college contrary to rules and laws. The MD told the PAC that Shifa International had proposed for a joint venture for building a medical college but the CDA said they could not go for a joint venture.
The PAC chairman questioned as to why the OPF had gone for a joint venture with Shifa, which, he said, might be eyeing the millions of rupee it could earn from medical students.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2016.
Its mission statement says the Overseas Pakistani Foundation (OPF) looks after interests of the citizens working or settled abroad but in reality it has shattered their confidence through half-done jobs with regard to housing schemes it started decades ago.
Islamabad Zone-V is one such scheme whose foundation stone was laid decades back by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) late chairperson Nusrat Bhutto but the scheme is still incomplete. Interestingly, the OPF has not held any departmental inquiry into the delay despite facing loss of billions of rupees.
This was revealed on Tuesday during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, in which Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development’s Secretary Khizar Hayat Khan recommended to refer the case to National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
“This is not an ordinary matter and earned us bad name,” he said while responding to the PAC’s queries.
The OPF was established under the Emigration Ordinance, 1979 and registered as a company under the Companies Act, 1913. The affairs of the foundation are run by a board of governors (BoG) with the minister in charge as its chairman.
The OPF Managing Director Habibur Rehman Khan gave several reasons for the long delay but had no justification for not initiating departmental inquiry. During a discussion on the OPF accounts, the PAC was apprised that the OPF had launched 11 schemes all across the country but almost all of them were incomplete.
When the committee looked at other audit paras, it learnt that the management had not provided auditors annual audited accounts for the year 2013-14 and 2014-15. They revealed irregularities like allotment of plots by some BoG members and delay in construction of a girls college in Islamabad.
In July 1996, six BoG members – Yawar Zia, Zaheer Ahmed, Syed Mehar Badshah, Sibte Yahya Naqvi, AZK Sherdil and Abdul Hayee – allotted to themselves plots in the scheme. Later, the matter was reported to the management on December 4, 2010, which withdrew the allotment and cancelled the letters.
“The matter was reported after 14 years. Was the allotment decision of the BOG not a crime?” a PAC member Mehmood Khan Achakzai asked the secretary. Later the PAC directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate the matter.
Meanwhile, the PAC ruled that it would conduct investigations behind the undue delay in construction of Girls College in Sector F-11/2 of Islamabad that caused a loss of Rs8.58 million.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) had allotted a plot measuring 4.10 acres to the OPF Girls College on 33 years lease basis extendable for two subsequent terms. However, due to delay in construction, extension charges amounting Rs8.583 million were paid to the CDA. Moreover, due to non-payment of premium on time, delayed payment charges of Rs1.103 million were also imposed.
The committee also took a serious notice of the OPF’s efforts to go for a joint venture for construction of the college contrary to rules and laws. The MD told the PAC that Shifa International had proposed for a joint venture for building a medical college but the CDA said they could not go for a joint venture.
The PAC chairman questioned as to why the OPF had gone for a joint venture with Shifa, which, he said, might be eyeing the millions of rupee it could earn from medical students.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2016.