NA Committee: Despite financial woes, civic body kept adding to wage bill

Of the 765 daily wagers who were regularised last year, 70 were in grades 14 and above.

ISLAMABAD:

Although the cash-strapped Capital Development Authority (CDA) cannot tighten its belt any further, the overstaffed civic agency still managed to regularise the services of 765 staffers from BPS-1 through 18 in the year 2012.

This came under discussion on Friday during a National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat meeting which was chaired by Dewan Ashiq Hussain Bokhari. The only agenda item was to discuss the composition of the CDA Board of Directors and the civic agency’s overall performance.

The statistics provided by the city managers show that in 2012, one person was regularised in BS-18, 14 people in BS-17, 13 in BS-16, 42 in BS-14, six in BS-11, two in BS-10, and the other 687 were in BPS-1 through BPS-9.

CDA Chairman Tahir Shahbaz said all the employees were regularised in the light of the directions of Cabinet Committee on Regularisation, headed by Religious Affairs Minister Khurshid Shah.

Though the issue was not discussed in detail, according to civic authorities, these employees had been recruited on daily-wages during the current government.

Restructuring of Board

The Committee on Cabinet Secretariat also directed the civic body to swiftly finalise a report suggesting ways to recompose the CDA board. Under the proposed plan, representatives of the Cabinet Division, Establishment Division, Ministry of Finance and Interior Ministry would also be included in the CDA Board along with existing members.

CDA Chairman Shahbaz informed the committee that Section 6 of the CDA Ordinance explains the constitution of the board. According to the rule, the board should consist of no less than three members including the CDA Chairman, and the federal government appoints all members.

He said the current board includes the chairman and six other members, while the Islamabad chief commissioner and Rawalpindi commissioner are ex-officio members.

Cabinet Special Secretary Shahidullah Baig also informed the committee that the cabinet had already sent a summary containing recommendations on the composition of the civic agency.

“Though the Prime Minister had ordered the replacement of the entire board by appointing a Chairman and four CDA members, a summary regarding the change is still with the premier,” Baig said.

Baig also endorsed the committee’s stance that the CDA should prepare new recommendations.

Earlier, he had also informed a Senate Committee about a summary sent to the Prime Minister regarding changes in CDA service rules by incorporating clauses elaborating educational qualification required to fill top senior posts in CDA.

CDA Chairman Shahbaz informed the committee that reconstruction of the CDA board was already underway and issues surrounding its composition would also be included.

Defunct PMO affairs

The devolution of the CDA’s Project Management Office (PMO) also came under discussion. The CDA chief said the PMO was established during the tenure of Kamran Lashari and was answerable directly to the CDA chairman.

He said that because of its autonomous status, the PMO carried out several projects without following established rules and procedures. “Almost 90 percent of the cases being probed by the Islamabad High Court-ordered judicial commission relate to the PMO, while most audit observations are also on projects initiated by the office.”

He said projects, which were under the domain of the PMO had already been diverted to other related formations of the authority, while the services of the staffers from the devolved office had been moved to other directorates.

Committee member Hameedullah Jan Afridi asked the CDA Chairman for a comprehensive presentation on the issue.

The committee was also informed that Rs15.12 billion worth of work on 26 ongoing development projects was underway. Out of 26, 10 projects are related to the Engineering Wing, six to the Planning Wing, and 10 projects are related to the Environment Wing.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2013.