Pakistan

Lake View entry fee scam: Four punished after prolonged inquiry

Investigation into the 2011 scam took four years; punished officers all got wage increment penalties

Danish Hussain November 18, 2015

Investigation into the 2011 scam took four years; punished officers all got wage increment penalties. facebook.com/lakeviewparkislamabad

ISLAMABAD: In light of the findings of an inquiry into embezzlement of entry fees collected at Lake View Park, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has imposed penalties on four of its officers.

Penalties range from stoppage of wage increments to demotion.

The embezzled amount —estimated at Rs16.25 million — will also be recovered from the officers including two directors, a deputy-director and a park manager.

An inquiry into the issue was initiated soon after the scam surfaced in 2011, but it has taken city managers almost over four years to complete the inquiry.

The CDA signed a contract for entry fee collection with a private firm in April 2011. According to the terms and conditions of the contract, it was supposed to be effective from November 2011.

But the inquiry shows that the contractor, in connivance with accused officials of the parks directorate, started collecting fees from April 2011, and failed to submit these to the CDA.

Initially, eight CDA staffers were accused of embezzling money, four of whom were later exonerated of all charges.

CDA Environment Deputy Director General Iftikhar Awan was the inquiry officer.

According to the order issued by the office of the CDA chairman, “The officers are found guilty of misconduct, inefficiency, corruption and misuse of power.”

The most significant penalty — “demotion by three increments” — was imposed on Irfan Azeem Khan, then the parks deputy-director.

Stoppage of wage increments for one year has been imposed on the other three officers — then-parks directors Khalid Malik and Asif Majeed, and then-parks manager Muhammad Zubair.

Meanwhile, four officers including assistant director Tariq Aziz, assistant accounts officer Bashir Ahmad, parks assistant manager Muhammad Junaid Afzal, and then deputy-director Tariq Hassan, have been exonerated.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2015.