Costly project dodges answerability

Sum total of Rs597 million have been spent on construction of multistorey buildings

LAHORE:

While the withdrawal of funds from the provincial exchequer by democratically elected leaders for reconstructing urban infrastructure is rarely a point of public curiosity, the reckless disbursement of stacks of cash by ad hoc officials for the gratuitous renovation of bureaucrat properties in the Punjab Civil Secretariat, commands earnest scrutiny.

Despite the one year old caretaker government tasked with the sole responsibility of managing the short term administrative affairs of the province, the provincial executive has notably undertaken a number of decisions, which have fallen outside the purview of its authority including the recent refurbishment of the fort of Lahore’s bureaucrat gentry, the Punjab Civil Secretariat, which has expended millions of rupees from the development funds of the province.

“When the low-grade staff request a simple repair of furniture or replacement of a light bulb, they are turned down on the grounds that funds are not available. But somehow millions of rupees start growing on trees when the offices of bureaucrats have to be upgraded,” anonymously lamented a staff driver.

According to data obtained by The Express Tribune, a sum total of Rs597 million have been spent on the construction of multistorey buildings, upgradation of bureaucrat offices, restoration of furniture, making of up-to-date roofs, installation of a drip irrigation system, and modernization of gardens, fountains and waterfalls located within the premises of the Punjab Civil Secretariat.

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Salman Abid, a representative of the civil society, opines that the crux of the problem lied not in the restoration of the Civil Secretariat but in the caretaker government’s overt interest in directing development funds towards the reconstruction of bureaucrat offices. “I fail to comprehend why the caretaker government, which came only to organize the elections, is getting involved in development works worth millions of rupees. Withdrawing such large amounts of funds from the provincial treasury is not a trivial matter. In times of soaring inflation, the caretaker government should have spent this money on the welfare of the common people,” opposed Abid.

While this time around, the caretaker government has landed in controversy for initiating such a massive refurbishment of the Civil Secretariat, this is not the first time that a government has spent lavishly on the upgradation of the estate offices.

In 2008, during the tenure of Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab Civil Secretariat had also been demolished and all eight Government Officers Residences (G.O.R)’s in the city were upgraded, with big offices partitioned into smaller ones, old roads reconstructed into modern driveways, and outdated lawns redecorated into contemporary gardens.

While it remains to be seen why the interim government decided to undertake yet another renovation of the Civil Secretariat, officials from the Punjab Finance Department and the Department of Communication and Works, maintain their position that the contentious infrastructural developments were in line with stipulated guidelines of the Annual Development Program (ADP), for which formal tenders have been issued.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2024.