Islamabad - The Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate of the Capital Development Authority has decided to conduct emergency audit and physical verification of the installed safety equipment worth millions of rupees after reports of embezzlement in the project.
The emergency audit, according to the sources in the CDA, was scheduled to be held on March 1 as the then project director was intimated to cooperate with the EDM team for the site inspection together with all the approvals of such executions, their technical sanctions, vendors’ details, payment released so far, total expenditure on fire equipment installation, remaining payments, security amounts pending besides details of equipment testing and maintenance.
However, Faisal Zaman Khan, the then project director (Renovation) has sought time for the inspection until testing and commissioning of the said equipment is completed by the consultant/contractor. He wrote a letter to the concerned directorate some days back stating that the amount mentioned in the correspondence was not correct.
“The total amount of the subject item is Rs190 million and actual amount paid as per site is 160 million,” the letter said. He said the concerned contractor has been asked to revisit all the installed firefighting system for its testing and commissioning as considerable time has lapsed since the said equipment were installed and the defect liability period has also expired. Some time back, the safety and fire equipment worth Rs290 million were installed at the main CDA secretariat and the contractor had allegedly quoted price of the items higher than the market.
Sources in the CDA said that the NAB and FIA have also conducted inquiries into the matter. The EDM Directorate has also approached the departments for obtaining copies of the inquiry reports to ascertain facts in the matter. The equipment were installed under CDA building standards for fire prevention and life safety-2010.