Senate body directs NAB to take legal action in land scam

Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation alleged to have embezzled Rs1.567 billion.

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works on Monday recommended the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to take legal action against officials involved in a 3,153 kanal land scam by the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF).

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, the Chairman of the Standing Committee Shahi Syed said the committee had deduced that Rs1.567 billion embezzlement had occurred in the Rs 11 billion housing foundation project. Also, the housing project was planned without obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Capital Development Authority (CDA). Syed explained that the CDA has divided the capital into five different zones and under Islamabad Capital Territory zoning regulations no government department can launch a housing project in Zone 4 without obtaining an NOC from the CDA.

Shahi Syed said that the FGEHF signed an agreement with Green Tree without inviting applications from prequalifying contractors for the purchase of land and development of a housing scheme, an act that goes against legal procedure. He said that the foundation ignored the rules and regulations of the federal government and allotted the contract to M/S Green Tree: a private land providing company, without any comparative evaluation of tenders

The committee directed NAB to initiate legal action against the members of the FGEHF executive committee and M/s Green Tree for intentionally and deliberately violating all rules, regulations and legal procedure, as well as misusing their authority for personal gain, and in effect causing a loss in the billions to the public exchequer. The committee also sought to investigate the irregularities for the sake of recovering the embezzled money from the defaulters and take legal proceedings against them under NAB laws, as well as the criminal procedure code.

The committee has directed the Ministry of Housing and Works (MoH&W) to forward the names of the defaulters to the Ministry of Interior in order to place them on the Exit Control List while also directing NAB to submit a detailed report within two months. The committee also recommended that the entire agreement be cancelled and the 3,153 kanal land be returned to Green Tree, which should refund the amount to FGEHF in lieu of transferred land. The committee also directed MoH&W to reconstitute and notify the formation of an executive committee of the Housing Foundation, as well as Pakistan Housing Authority by inducting new members from civil society, media and lawyer forums with the objective of achieving transparency and fairness in order to avoid further ill-conceived decisions.

An inquiry report by MB Awan, Senior Joint Secretary has revealed that the raw land price in the area of Bara Kahu where the housing scheme was planned to be constructed was only Rs47,000 per kanal whereas the ministry bought it at an average cost of Rs950,000 per kanal.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2012.