ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: The renovation of the headquarters of Islamabad’s main civic agency has cost over Rs600 million during the last four years.  

Dawn learnt from an official of the Project Management Office (PMO) that the renovation work on the four-block headquarters of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), including its chairman office, started in 2008.

“The renovation bill remained around Rs500 million till 2010 but an additional Rs100 million was spent on the project during the last two years,” added the official.

A building department official observed that currently the renovation of any government building cost around Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 per square yard. However, officials in the PMO refused to reveal the per square yard cost of the renovation work on the CDA building which was awarded to a contractor in 2008. This raised doubts about the role of the civic agency.

The CDA headquarter is housed in a single-storey building aligned in a rectangular shape at Sector G-7/4. The building has almost over 150 rooms and most of them are allocated to senior managers of the authority. The covered area of the building is around 100,000 square feet.

According to the PMO official, the covered area comprised the offices of directorates of administration, estate, land, planning, finance, law and the IT units.

“The renovation includes tiling, woodwork, change of furniture and even fixtures like tubelights, ceiling fans etc.” said the official.

One engineering wing official added: “In a few of the rooms, there were already modern fire extinguishers, but the authority approved installation of two more in one room.” He said it was against renovation rules because the fire extinguishers were purchased at higher rates.

An engineering wing official explained that a lot of money was also wasted on changing the furniture. He said an executive office was repainted several times. “This increased the renovation bill.”

A finance wing official also questioned the logic behind CDA board’s decision to allow the renovation work which has been continuing for the last over four years.

“In some instances, new taps were fixed in washrooms for many times after they were stolen,” he remarked.

He also questioned CDA Chairman Syed Tahir Shahbaz’s austerity measures and said the authority had not yet stopped the renovation work.

“The renovation bill has crossed over Rs600 million mark and this payment should now be blocked,” he asserted, adding the authority was struggling to pay salaries to its over 18,000 employees.

A civil engineer working with the authority remarked: “A new high-rise building could have been built from this amount (Rs600 million).”

But a senior official at the engineering wing sided with the CDA boss and said: “The contractor has done the work on merit and despite the increased cost of construction he is still carrying out the renovation at old rates.

When contacted, CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid said: “I can’t say much about the project but if there is any irregularity in the award of the contract, we will probe the matter.”

He did not offer any comment on the huge amount spent on the renovation of the building when the civic agency was facing worst financial crunch. The official also did not confirm or deny the amount of Rs600 million spent on the renovation project.