| ISLAMABAD - The quantum of funds utilised to carry out development work in Islamabad is still undercover as the Capital Development Authority’s management is reluctant to share the details of works carried out through quotations instead of the open tendering process since 2018. The city managers reportedly had carried out development works worth billions of rupees through quotation basis in successive managements but there are no official figures available in this regard on the record.
The quotations is a mode of procurement provided in Public Procurement Regulatory Rules for tiny works, in which the work up to Rs.500,000 can be awarded without going into a tendering process but reportedly the said provision is blatantly misused by few directorates of the CDA. This scribe had filed a request in this regard under Right of Access to Information Act, 2017 in September 2022 and sought specific details on this subject, which is otherwise termed as a biggest scam of the recent history of CDA.
It was requested by the CDA to provide the year and directorate wise breakup of development works carried out on ‘quotation bases’ from 2018 till date. The names of the companies which were awarded the quotations declaring them ‘lowest’ were also requested through said RTI request in addition to providing the details of those companies which could not succeed to win the same quotations.
The scribe also requested to provide the names of the officers, who have approved the technical as well as financial sanctions for all such quotations. Meanwhile, it was also requested from the CDA that it should also be explained how much of the total development budget of the authority was spent through quotations in the aforementioned time period.
In response to this RTI request, the RTI officer of CDA Syed Safdar Shah had sent a letter and informed that the requisite information is being gathered from different quarters and it will be made available in the shortest possible time. However, since then no response has been made by the city managers, which means the management is reluctant to share the specific details in this regard. It is pertinent to mention here that the former Chief Commissioner and the Chairman CDA Amir Ali Ahmed had directed his subordinates to discontinue the practice of awarding development works on quotation basis but his instructions were also ignored.
Later, when the present government came into power, the previous Chairman Captain (Retd) Muhammad Usman had not only put a complete ban on the practice but also ordered an inquiry in this regard, which has yet to be completed.
People who know the prevailing practice are well aware that usually the government departments avoid sharing even public information until the Right to Information Commission is not ordered to do so and in most of the cases even the orders of the commission are not entertained as well. Unfortunately, the information commission remained dysfunctional for several months as the office of chief information commissioner and two information commissioners were lying vacant since expiry of the term of their last incumbents but now the government has made postings over there. |
|
