KARACHI - The Karachi Development Authority (KDA) has failed to provide fruitful results allegedly due to lethargic attitude of Sindh government.
A high official of Finance Department of KDA on condition of anonymity informed The Nation about current financial crisis in the authority, and informed that Sindh government had made KDA functional after sixteen years in 2016 but the provincial rulers did not pay heed to empower the authority.
He said that provincial government had made KDA functional two years ago in position of 2001, but master plan department which is consider as major revenue source for department is not reverted to KDA from Sindh Building Control Authority.
The Sindh government paying Rs204 million grant instead of reverting master plan department. However, Karachi Development Authority has expenditure of Rs320million including Rs208 million of employees’ salaries and pension.
Giving breakup of Rs320 million, he informed KDA is paying Rs185.3 million to regular employees in terms of salaries, Rs8.1 million as work charge employees salaries, Rs13.3 million of contract employees salaries, Rs83.2 million of pensions and Rs40 million of other expenses.
He further informed that the KDA owed Rs1.4 billion towards account of Contributory Provident (CP) Fund, accommodation funds and dues of retired employees.
The officer further said that provincial government also restricted the powers of the authority like ban on auction of land while the rulers declined to complete its governing body as the authority unable to take any concrete measure to overcome the current financial crisis.
The officer further said that due to the lack of the governing body quorum KDA is unable to launch any new scheme. He informed that the KDA had auctioned some land in last year but the process had been freezed by National Accountability Bureau after the arrest of former Director General of KDA Nasir Abbas in corruption charges.
The officer informed that higher authority of KDA approach the government to improve the grant from Rs204 million to Rs300 million but the government did not pay heed over the suggestion.
KDA also have demands for completion of the governing body quorum and lifting the ban on auction of land on immediate basis to control looming financial crunch in Karachi Development Authority.
It is worth to mentioning here that the officials of KDA have concern that the provincial minister for local government Saeed Ghani visited several times in KDA and bound the officials to ensure their presence in office and asked the officials to perform their duties in good manners but did not take interest on suggestion for empowerment of KDA.
Repeated attempts were made to reach out to Minister for Local Government Saeed Ghani for his comments but he did not respond.