Embezzlement?: Civic agency won’t give the dogs a bone

Feed for rescue canines allegedly misappropriated; four officials charge sheeted.

ISLAMABAD: It seems even man’s best friend is left disappointed and hungry by the apathetic Capital Development Authority (CDA).

On Monday, the civic agency issued charge-sheet to four CDA officials who have been charged with fraud in the purchase of dog feed.

The urban search and rescue team (USRT) of the CDA Emergency and Disaster Management (EDM) has 17 specially-trained Labrador Retrievers to perform rescue work in disaster situations.

These Labradors were purchased by the authority some five years ago from the Army Dog Centre at Rawalpindi. Each dog costs between Rs400,000 and Rs500,000.

In March 2012, the CDA hired KB Enterprises on single quotation basis to supply dog feed for nine months. The original contract was for Rs1.485 million, although final payment rose to Rs1.98 million. The payments were subject to the fulfillment of all formalities and an audit.

The CDA audit team later found that though the CDA had made payments to the contractor, the required feed was not supplied. This resulted in the initiation of an inquiry.

The preliminary inquiry, available with The Express Tribune, concluded that “Over payment was made to the contractor due to the negligence of accounts staff.”

It further reads that due to the negligence, the authority sustained a loss.

After it was determined that the feed was not even supplied to the CDA, the officials deemed responsible were charge-sheeted. CDA Environment Member Mustafain Kazmi has been assigned as the authorised officer in the inquiry.

In the doghouse

One of the accused told The Express Tribune that the contractor whose payments were stopped due to enquiry moved the Islamabad High Court against the CDA and prayed before the court for release the outstanding payment.

He said the IHC formed a local commission headed by Attaullah Hakim Kundi to determine the facts. After the report was submitted to the IHC on February 14, 2014, the court decided in favor of the contractor. Though the authority’s own inquiry was in progress, the court order forced the CDA to release the outstanding amount before it was completed.

The officer said authority officials “deliberately skipped the names of some officials” who were originally accused in the fraud. “They were given a clean chit during preliminary inquiry,” he said.

He named a former municipal administration director who was “closely involved”, saying that his name is not included in the list of four people who have been charge sheeted.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2014.