Islamabad: CDA fails to use major chunk of budget 2008-09

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Official says CDA has so far used 34% of self-finance, 40% of revenue and 13% of PSDP allocations

By Fazal Sher

ISLAMABAD: Though the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is preparing budget for fiscal year 2009-10, it utilised only 40 percent of its total Rs 25.889 billion budget for 2008-09 till the end of third quarter of the current fiscal.

CDA has so far failed to utilise major chunk of its budget, including self-finance, revenue and Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocations. In the current fiscal, the authority’s self-finance allocation was Rs 20 billion, revenue Rs 1.166 billion, PSDP Rs 392.114 million and others Rs 3.482 billion, a senior official told Daily Times.

The official said so far CDA had used 34 percent of self-finance, 40 percent of revenue and 13 percent of PSDP allocations. He said the government had released only Rs 51 million out of total PSDP allocations. He said CDA failed to start work on a number of approved projects in the current year, which was main reason of non-utilisation of major chunk of the budget.

He said the CDA had allocated 79 percent budget for development projects and 21 per cent for non-development expenditures. The development budget included allocations for roads, interchanges, underpasses, water supply, sewerage and environment sectors, he said.

The official said contrary to the CDA claims of a lot of work in all sectors, unfortunately it spent no major amount on improvement of decades old water supply and sewerage systems due to which the citizens are facing a number of problems.

The CDA launched no new project for the improvement of city environment in the current year, he said.

The official said CDA had spent major chunk of budget on development of roads. The important self-financed projects in the current financial year budget included land acquisition for different sectors Rs 2,736 million, construction of Kashmir Highway Rs 800 million, improvement of environment by solid waste management Rs 600 million, construction of Zero Point Interchange Rs 600 million, development of Sector D-12 Rs 500 million, development F-9 Park Rs 500 million, rehabilitation of Islamabad Expressway Rs 500 million, construction of underpass and flyover at the intersection of Faisal and Jinnah Avenues Rs 400 million, development of Sector E-12 Rs 200 million, Rapid Mass Transit System consultancy charges Rs 50 million, construction of gyms and libraries in different sectors Rs 50 million, construction of underpass on 9th Avenue between sector G-8 and I-9 Rs 40 million and establishment of diagnostic centre at CDA hospital Rs 30 million.

The official said CDA made huge allocation for the different projects but the incompetent staff failed to utilise these approved amounts. He said the most important PSDP projects included addition of third and fourth lanes on Kashmir Highway from Peshawar Mor to Golra Mor at the cost Rs 50 million, improvement of HVAC system and furnishing at Aiwan-e-Sadar building Rs19.537 million, construction of permanent offices of chairmen standing committee of the parliament Rs 50 million and purchase of land for construction of Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services Rs 34.472 million.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_1