Two months late: Unnecessary referal causes inordinate CDA budget delay

Newly-posted board member suggested seeking cabinet division approval even though CDA does not require it

ISLAMABAD:

By unnecessarily sending drafts of the civic agency’s budget document to the Cabinet Division for endorsement, city managers caused a two-and-a-half-month delay in the execution of development projects in the capital.

This went contrary to the fact that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is an autonomous body under the law of the land, with the authority’s own board being the sole competent forum to approve or disapprove of the document. A CDA official said it was the first time in the authority’s history that the document had been sent to the cabinet division for approval.

Though the Cabinet Division is the controlling body of the civic agency, it has no say in the CDA’s financial matters, said a CDA law wing official. The CDA presented its budget for the financial year 2014-15 on June 27, with a total layout of Rs45.8 billion.

“Upon approval from the CDA board, it was sent to the Cabinet Division,” said a Finance Wing official who asked not to be named.

The official said it was sent in July 2014 and the Cabinet Division only approved and returned the document last week.

Without budget approval, work on ongoing developmental projects stopped as the finance wing refused to release payments in the odd situation. Meanwhile, the authority also refrained from issuing any new work orders during this time for the same reason.

The CDA finance wing official said that the Cabinet Division should have returned the document to the CDA as it was not its mandate. Instead, he added, the document was forwarded to the Finance Division.

“The Finance Division then presented a number of queries and asked the city managers to explain,” the official said, quipping that the same CDA board members who had “shown over-efficiency” were left “worried” by the situation.

It took 75 days to iron out the issues and clear the document.

One of the CDA board members who had actually floated the idea of sending a draft to Cabinet Division defended his move when approached for comment. When asked about relevant provisions in the CDA Ordinance that suggest the move should have been made, he admitted, “There is no specific provision in the CDA Ordinance about clearance of budget document from the Cabinet Division.”

But, he said, it was done in the light of some recent instructions issued by the Cabinet Division.

He confirmed that the issues had been resolved and the approved document was with the CDA.

CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal was not available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2014.