‘Mega’ corruption scandal surfaces in CDA

[Salman]

ISLAMABAD: A mega scandal of grabbing millions of rupees by the different directorates of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) every year from construction companies and contractors in the name of development and non-development works has surfaced. The commission is taken from top officers of the respective directorates to clerical staff deployed on preparing and issuing cheques.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has decided to conduct a massive investigation on the basis of information received by them on this count. Particulars of all the firms and contractors registered with the CDA will be called.

The commission is distributed among the CDA officials with the ratio of five percent for sub engineer, five percent for assistant director, around seven percent for deputy director, five percent for accounts department, four percent for finance department, three percent for director, two percent for director general and half of a percent for cheque section. Sources said that this share is collected by mafia as their due share. Sources disclosed that such files have come to light in the record of the Finance Department wherein heavy payments have been made on the scanned signatures of member finance and heavy loss has been caused to national exchequer. Sources said FIA has hammered out strategy to take into possession the record of this scam. FIA sources said the arrests of CDA Deputy Director Mian Irfan and Cashier Iftikhar were made while taking bribes in the light of these investigations. They were presented before the court of Islamabad Senior Civil Judge Abdul Ghafoor Kakar and they were handed over by the court to the FIA on physical remand for two days.