ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla on Wednesday expressed strong annoyance on Capital Development Authority (CDA) for not writing a letter to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) regarding the maintenance of Parliament Lodges and asked the CDA to shun ‘bureaucratic apathy,’ improve its performance and put its house in order.

Chairing a meeting of Senate House Committee, the deputy chairman Senate was taken by surprise when the MoF officials contradicted the claims made by the CDA that it had written a letter to the MoF for the release of funds for maintenance of Parliament Lodges.

The MoF officials briefed the committee that the ministry received a letter from CDA regarding release of routine budget but no specific letter was sent to the ministry by CDA regarding the release of budget for the maintenance of Parliament Lodges for the second and third quarters.

“This is just not acceptable,” the chairman committee said. “The CDA should shun bureaucratic apathy, improve its performance and put its house in order,” he added.

Chairman CDA Amer Ali Ahmed assured the committee that the letter would be sent to the MoF by today (Thursday). The chairman CDA said the maintenance of Parliament Lodges was the responsibility of CDA after certain directorates that were under the administrative control of Municipal Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) were brought back under the CDA’s administrative control.

These include directorates of Environment Wing (Urban, Regional, Parks), Directorate of Sanitation and City Sewerage, Directorate of Bulk Water Supply, Directorate of Water and Sewerage Development and all the directorates of Engineering have been entrusted to the CDA by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) for an interim period of six months, the chairman CDA briefed the committee.

The committee also reviewed the matter referred to it by Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani regarding installation of a cellular tower of a telecom company in Parliament Lodges. The chairman committee said although, no complaint has been received regarding the services provided by the said telecom company yet no company would be given any special favour in violation of prescribed official rules. A decision regarding the installation of the cellular tower would be taken in the light of PPRA (Public Procurement Regulatory Authority) rules, he said. The committee decided to take up the matter with the MCI and review it in detail in the next meeting.

The committee members including Kulsoom Parveen, Barrister Javed Abbasi, Molvi Faiz Muhammad and the senior officials of CDA, MoF and Planning Division attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020