ISLAMABAD: A special audit of the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) has unearthed massive irregularities and alleged corruption in several mega projects.

The audit of several projects was conducted by a special team of the CDA headed by audit officer Rao Shahid Pervez.

The team was tasked with carrying out the special audit of the last two years of car parking in Shakarparian and Daman-i-Koh, at a space adjacent to Centaurus and Diplomatic Bus Shuttle Service.

The CDA had ordered the special audit of these projects over reports of alleged corruption after the relevant officials, instead of auctioning them, opted for the self-collection system.

At Centaurus, Shakarparian and Damn-i-Koh car parking and the G-9 bus terminal, the municipal officers did self-collection and resorted to alleged corruption.

The audit report available with Dawn revealed that parking ticket books were gotten printed from a local market and the ticket books were not taken on stock nor numbers were mentioned in the ticket books.

Instead of auction, officials opted for self-collection of parking fee at Centaurus Mall, Shakarparian, Daman-i-Koh, audit report reveals

The auditors said due to the market-printed books, it was difficult for them to check the daily collection of parking fee and its remittance to the CDA and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI). They said the books were gotten printed without the approval of the competent authority.

“The books should have been issued with the signature of an authorised officer. Unfortunately, there is no record available about the books in the office of the DMA. The matter has been discussed with the concerned staff and they admit that the record is not maintained which is a serious financial irregularity,” the audit report said.

“The maintenance of a stock register of the ticket books is the basic requirement to check the parking fee receipt without which the exact collection could not be ascertained. In view of the above, the DMA administration may justify this serious financial irregularity which required investigation at an appropriate level,” the audit report said.

“Details of receipts and expenditure are not available/maintained. No record regarding payment of salaries and other expenditure was maintained and all expenditure incurred without approval of the competent authority. The payment of parking sites expenditure direct from the parking receipts is irregular and doubtful. This is a serious financial irregularity which shows loose financial discipline in DMA which requires proper justification,” the report said.

It said a previous contractor of Centaurus car parking had to pay Rs30 million but not a single notice was issued to him by the office of DMA for the recovery of the amount.

After the DMA took over possession of parking sites and the bus terminal, the recovery of parking fee decreased abnormally compared to the bid of the contractor.

“The DMA management managed the sites of car parking without any standard operating procedure. There is no record maintained for printing of ticket books, which basically caused less recovery.”

The audit observed that there was no transparency in the recovery of parking fee due to which the authority sustained a loss of Rs82.34 million,” read the audit report.

The DMA took over possession of G-9 bus stand on Sept 8, 2021 and of Centaurus parking space on June 24, 2021. The report said there were 19 kiosks in the G-9 bus stand and two in the parking at Centaurus which were given on rent to the general public without approval of the competent authority.

“The rent of these kiosks are received by the DMA staff but not deposited into the CDA accounts. This is a clear-cut loss to the authority which required proper inquiry at an appropriate level.”

The audit also pointed that there were Rs170 million recoverable from the contractor of the G-9 stand but no effort was made for its recovery.

The DMA operated the Diplomatic Bus Shuttle Service from Dec 14, 2020 to Jan 3, 2022 and earned only Rs24.965 million which was much less than the payment of the contractor for one year which was Rs102 million.

“In view of the above, the audit feels the loss of Rs77.635 million sustained to the authority due to negligence of DMA management,” the report said.

When contacted, CDA’s member finance Rana Shakeel Asghar confirmed to Dawn that the special audit had been completed.

“Now, we will share the audit report with the administrator of the MCI for further action,” he said.

To a query, the member finance said: “We will not tolerate any wrongdoing. We will address the issue of DMA in accordance with rules and regulations.”

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2022