Housing: MDA fails to stop encroachments

The audit report repeatedly stated that MDA did not even bother to clarify the points raised during the audit.

KARACHI:

The auditor general of Pakistan has detected financial misappropriations worth Rs32 billion in the Malir Development Authority (MDA).

For an authority formed to provide low-cost housing to people, the irregularities comes from its failure to stop encroachment, excess payments to contractors and a marketing firm.

The audit report, which covers five fiscal years from 2005 to 2009, repeatedly stated that MDA did not even bother to clarify the points raised during the audit. MDA took its biggest financial hit of Rs24.22 billion as it lost 3,460 acres of its land to people who showed fake goths on the maps and occupied it, the report said.

“Land was encroached upon despite the fact that MDA has its own director and an anti-encroachment cell,” the report pointed out. “A huge amount was paid on the account of salaries of security guards.”

The auditor general also complained that the MDA director general did not provide any detail related to plots in its schemes. It sold 3,500 acres to a company MM but did not recover the cost of nearly 1,500 acres, leading to a loss of Rs1 billion. The developer fell short of recovering dues from plot owners.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2013.