PHOTO: EXPRESS
The Senate House Committee met at the conference hall at the Parliament Lodges on Thursday with Deputy Senate Chairman Senator Saleem Mandviwalla in the chair. The meeting expressed its dismay over the performance of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in the past and complained about missing facilities at the lodges.
The chairman lambasted the CDA over its pathetic state of affairs regarding upgrading facilities at the Parliament Lodges and ordered the CDA chairman to conduct a thorough inquiry into the affairs.
CDA Chairman Afzal Latif explained to the body that the delay was caused by delays in the release of funds with even some grants from previous quarters still pending.
To this, Additional Finance Secretary Arshad Mehmood said that the federal government had released a maintenance grant for eight buildings, including the parliament lodges on a quarterly basis. However, he said that the fourth quarter grants of 2016-17 and 2017-18 had been withheld due to the non-utilisation funds which had been already released.
At this, Mandviwalla asked the finance division to release the money at earliest so that renovation work at the lodges could be completed.
Mehmood assured the committee that all dues will be released within a week and committed that the CDA would not face a paucity of funds regarding renovation work on the Parliament Lodges.
The committee chairman said that he will now personally monitor the functioning of the CDA and the finance division regarding the release of funds and the timely maintenance of the Parliament Lodges.
The CDA chairman, though, requested the committee to conduct an expenditure review for ascertaining the situation on the ground and said that the CDA will apologise if it was proven guilty.
Senator Samina Saeed alleged that the CDA was playing favourites since its officials sometimes did not even bother to attend their calls.
Mandviwalla suggested that the CDA replace its staff deployed in the Parliament Lodges with at least some professionally sound staffers.
To this, the CDA chairman said that some of the CDA staff had been working in the lodges for the past 30 years and were well entrenched which is why they were facing difficulties in relocating them.
As an example, Latif pointed out that they had tried to replace around 15 staffers last month but all of them managed to obtain stay orders from the courts.
Miffed, Mandviwalla suggested that CDA outsource the subject if it is unable to cope with the situation.
As an example of CDA negligence, Senator Sardar Shafique Tareen pointed to an old, worn out wall clock hanging in the conference room and said that it was not about funds, rather CDA’s reluctance to do something.
Meanwhile, the Civil Defence director general (DG) Muhammad Hanif Khattak also made some astonishing revelations about fire extinguishing equipment in the lodges. He told the committees that most of the equipment installed at the lodges was outdated. He stated that the fire detection and alarm systems and the hydrant systems did not work. Hose reels did not have a water source to connect to while there were insufficient fire extinguishers.
The committee directed to conduct fire drills, mend the fire system in all public institutions and directed an inquiry regarding the fire extinguishing tools in parliament.
Matters pertaining to the construction of an additional block in the lodges were also discussed in detail. The committee was told that representatives from the contractor and the CDA have been chosen who will examine how much work has been done and what remains. The remaining work will be done per the current rate but joint efforts are needed.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2019.
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