CDA pilgrimage programmes: For Christian staffers, Vatican trip a heavy cross to bear

Last year’s group was forced to pay out-of-pocket due to CDA’s malfeasance.

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) does not have enough money on hand to pay salaries, utility bills, or numerous other operational expenses, mostly due to its own poor policymaking, yet it continues to spend huge amounts of taxpayer money to fulfill the personal religious and spiritual needs of its employees.

The authority has not paid its 15,000 employees their salaries for June 2013, as the CDA’s bank accounts were blocked by the Federal Board of Revenue a few days back over non-payment of over Rs500 million in taxes.

“The CDA used to release monthly salaries on the 1st of every month, but right now, they are not expected till at least July 7,” a CDA Finance Wing official said. Electricity for the authority’s main building has also been suspended for several days over nonpayment of dues running into millions.

Yet, despite the precarious financial position it is in, the authority has already selected some 30 employees to perform Hajj this year at the CDA’s expense. The programme will cost taxpayers around Rs14 million.

“Firstly, the CDA does not need to send employees to religious sites, given the financial situation. But, if it is very important for employees, Muslims and Christians must be treated equally,” said a senior official of the authority while requesting not to be named.

To their credit, the city managers’ desire to finance the religiosity of its employees — over 2,000 of whom are Christian— is not restricted to Muslim staffers. In fact, the authority has a programme to send Christian staff members to Rome, Italy, so that they can go to Vatican City to attend Christmas Mass with the pope in Saint Peter’s Square.

In 2008, following persistent demands, the authority announced an annual programme under which five Christian employees would be sent to the Vatican. However, the plan was poorly thought through.

“City managers were unwilling to launch the scheme. That is the reason they did not introduce a proper mechanism for the scheme. They only announced that every year, balloting will be held and the successful employees will be given around Rs200,000 each to visit the Vatican,” said a group of Christian employees.

They added that most of the Christian employees work as sanitation staff and are illiterate. “They don’t know how to process visa application and almost none of them have passports”.

In 2008, the balloting was held for the first time and five employees were selected for the Vatican programme. “All 10 employees were sweepers and were unaware of how to get a visa. They did not even have passports,” the staffers informed.

As the authority did not make the effort to hire a travel agency as it did for Muslim pilgrims, the timeframe for the Vatican visit passed and the funds lapsed. A similar situation arose the next year, when five employees were selected through balloting, but none could proceed to the Vatican.

“The authority hires a private travel agent to complete the required documentation for Muslim pilgrims. But for Christians, they just twiddle their thumbs and let the funds lapse,” lamented an employee who was selected but was unable to make the trip.

The same thing happened in 2010 and 2011, before the authority came up with an odd solution.

In 2012, plans were made to send 10 Christian employees to the Vatican, but without open balloting. Instead, employees selected were required to be literate, possessing a valid passport, and capable of processing their visa applications.

The 10 employees proceeded for a seven-day trip to Rome, but, were in for an unwelcome surprise upon returning. Soon after returning to Pakistan, they were informed that since no balloting was held, the whole process had been deemed illegal.

“We were asked to return, Rs200,000 each, which the CDA had paid us for our visit,” said one of the pilgrims. After the low paid staffers pled their inability to raise such a significant amount, the CDA decided to deduct Rs6,000 per month from their salaries until the amount had been paid off.

“It is the second month that the authority has been deducting money from our salaries,” said an affected employee. Now, with December fast-approaching, the CDA has still not introduced an acceptable mechanism to avoid future complexities in the Vatican programme.

Human Resource Development Director Asia Gull, who also holds the additional charge of Public Relations director, told The Express Tribune that she could not elaborate on the issue until she had consulted with the officials concerned.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2013.