What financial crunch?: In four years, CDA bosses spent Rs8m on their houses

The information was contained in a report submitted by the authority in response to a parliamentarian’s question.

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) dire financial state did not stop its former chairmen from spending lavishly on their official houses. This was despite the fact that the authority at times found itself wanting for money to pay salaries and utility bills.

More than Rs8 million were spent on the residences of former CDA chairmen in the past four years, according to a document submitted to the National Assembly (NA). The report was submitted in response to a question asked by Pakistan Muslim League-N parliamentarian Muhammad Riaz Malik. Malik had asked for the records in the last NA session.

The amount was spent between March 2008 and October 2012, according to the document. The expenditures were listed as electrical and mechanical work.

Leading the pack is Engineer Farkhand Iqbal, who was the CDA chairman for the least duration: from December 2011 to October 2012. He spent Rs4.357 million on his official residence. Iqbal was removed in 2012 following multiple allegations of corruptions and mismanagement. He was the brains behind the controversial LED project, where the bulbs in all streetlights in Islamabad were to be replaced with energy-efficient LED lights at a cost of Rs6.5 billion. The project had allegedly been awarded to a high bidder, with each LED light costing the government Rs100,000 instead of Rs20,000, the market price. A National Accountability Bureau inquiry against the CDA was underway when Iqbal was removed.

His predecessor, Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, spent Rs3.46 million on the renovation of his official residence in F-6/3 between June 2009 and December 2011, when he was made the secretary of the Capital Administration and Development Division (now Ministry of Capital Administration and Development).

Elahi did not spend much in the first two years of his tenure: Rs0.041 million in 2009 and Rs0.115 million in 2010. In 2011, his last year, he spent Rs3.304 million on the renovation of his official residence. The CDA was in a financial crunch at the time.

Kamran Lashari, who was the chairman of the CDA before him, spent Rs0.253 million on his residence in his last year, according to the document. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2012.