Contract award lands CDA in hot water

PAC directs civic agency to avoid violating its own rules

ISLAMABAD: A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sub-committee on Tuesday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman to hold internal and external inquiries into officials who awarded the Diplomatic Shuttle Services contract to a company lacking Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registration.

The meeting at Parliament House, chaired by Shahida Akhter, examined the audit records for the fiscal year 2002-2003.



During the meeting, the CDA Audit director general informed the committee that not only had officials awarded the contract to a company which was not registered with the SECP, but the original file had been misplaced and the CDA was claiming it could not locate it.

This revelation was chastised by PAC member Mian Abdul Manan, who said that the CDA should overcome its negligence and find the file as soon as possible.

Briefing the Committee, CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal pointed out that they have forwarded many other corruption cases to the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency for inquiries.

The committee also directed the CDA to take action against officials who ordered the construction of buildings on green belts and reprimanded the civic body for violating its own regulations.



On June 3, the PAC had directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman to lodge an FIR against his subordinates over the disappearance of the same file.

The DSS contract had been declared void by the Islamabad High Court in 2015. The court had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to take action against CDA officials involved in the contract award and had barred the contractor from shifting movable assets from the site until NAB finalises the inquiry.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2016.