NAB to file reference against Sector E-11 housing society

Supplementary reference to be filed in Commerce Ministry Employees Cooperative Society

ISLAMABAD: The apex anti-corruption watchdog in the country Tuesday approved a reference against the management of the Services Cooperative Society in Sector E-11 and others.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) accused Abdul Razzaq Memon, Ramzan Zia Bhatti, Javaid Awan, Shahid Aziz, Khawaja Manzoor Ahmed and others of involved in corrupt practices and the misuse of authority.

“The management committee sold, allotted commercial plots in violation of by-laws of the society which state that commercial plots will be auctioned,” NAB said in a statement.

The anti-corruption body said that during its inquiry, it was revealed that 10 commercial plots had been sold without auction under a former management of the society through corruption and corrupt practices.

In another case, NAB’s Rawalpindi and Islamabad bureaus approved supplementary reference against Raja Ishaq (Contractor), Muhammad Sulaiman, and Muhammad Ibrahim of the Ministry of Commerce Employees Cooperative Society.

The accused were allegedly involved in the embezzlement of development expenditure by making excess payment illegally through misuse of authority. The practice, NAB said, was continued by other management committees without verification. And when the matter was finally brought to their knowledge, the inflated payments continued to the contractor.

Ex-CDA chief acted without authority

A NAB spokesman has stated that former federal secretary, who had also served as the chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), had misused his authority.

The anti-corruption body official stated that construction of the Cultural Complex in Shakarparian was a self-financed project which had been approved by CDA development working party (DWP), the competent forum, during a meeting on January 17, 2007.

Thereafter, All legal formalities for the project, including a feasibility study, capital cost estimates, annual O&M cost, financial plan, mode of financing, project benefits and analysis of financial< economic, social benefits and indicators, employment generation, environmental impact, impact of delays on project cost and viability were discussed at length while preparing the project concept-1 (PC-I) of the project.

The PC-1, the NAB spokesperson said, was duly examined and approved by CDA DWP.

“Hence, initial planning and approval of the project was not ill-conceived or ill-planned,” the official said.

Work on the project started on December 27, 2007, and continued until August 26, 2009.

After Imtiaz Inayat Elahi took charge as the CDA chairman in June 2009, he visited the project site and ordered to stop work.

“Elahi, in his capacity as CDA chairman, was not competent to take such decision unilaterally, that too without assigning any cogent reason,” the NAB official said, adding that the decision to stop work on the project was illegal, mala fide, unilateral, arbitral and in contravention of notification by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) and guidelines of the Planning Commission for self-financed projects such as Cultural Complex Project. This resulted in the wasteful expenditure of Rs471 million directly and may also resulted in a further loss to state exchequer in form of claims and liabilities.

The executive board of NAB, in its meeting held on April 20, 2018, had decided to file a reference in an accountability court in Islamabad against him and is expected to be filed soon, the official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2018.