PESHAWAR: The local government department has launched E-property Management System to facilitate interested people from across the country to participate in the auction of commercial properties.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan formally inaugurated E-Property Management System of local government to ensure effective and efficient management of the commercial properties of the department and all its subordinate formations including town municipal administrations and development authorities, said an official statement here on Thursday.

An online digital system of auction of these commercial properties has been introduced. The launching ceremony was held here that was also attended by Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Local Government Kamran Bangash and senior officers.

The chief minister termed the initiative as first ever of its kind in the entire country and another significant progress of the provincial government towards e-governance system. He said that the initiative would not only make the entire auction process of commercial properties more efficient and transparent but would also increase the revenue of the department manifolds.

He lauded the efforts of local government department for introducing E-Property Management System and said that it was one of the priority areas of the government to enhance capacity of departments by effective use of information technology. He added that government was going all out to facilitate the people at maximum level by the effective use of information technology.

Briefing the chief minister about the salient features of the newly launched system, officials said that E-bidding and E-Auction System had already been launched by the local government department.

They said that under the newly introduced E-Property Management System, a centralised mechanism was devised to keep track of properties of TMAs and other relevant records of rents or leases that would promote transparency and accountability, increase the capacity of revenue collection and reduce the operational costs.

They said that under the system, Rs4,928.5 million was saved during the financial year 2017-18. Similarly, Rs5,034.1 was saved during the 2018-19 and Rs1,976.1 million during the fiscal year 2019-20. Similarly, under the E-auction system of local government department significant increase in the revenue was recorded.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2020