Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The incumbent Member Administration CDA has called a meeting to set a time frame for the finalisation of years old pending inquiries within the authority this coming Wednesday.

A legal maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied” fits for the Capital Development Authority (CDA) as currently over a hundred inquiries regarding corruption, contravention and malpractices have been pending in the civic body.

However, the Member Administration, CDA, Muhammad Yasir Peerzada, has put his feet in this ‘Pandora’s Box’, which could never be finalised by his predecessors in the past.

Mr. Peerzada has called a meeting of all chairmen and members of the inquiry committees on Wednesday and it has been directed that the participants shall attend the meeting with full preparations and they should have the information of the composition of inquiry committee, name of accused officers, date of assigning inquiries, reasons for delay in completion and the further required time in this regard.

Earlier, the member had already directed the issuance of new orders for timely conclusion of inquiries to the Human Resource Directorate, CDA, some days before.

He had also directed the HRD that the announced measures should be strictly observed. Until the inquiries completed, the inquiry officer, the accused as well as the witnesses concerned should not be permitted to proceed on leave, any training course or on a transfer in or outside Pakistan.

As per rules and regulations of the authority, around two weeks are required to complete a departmental inquiry, but contrary to the rules, a large number of inquiries have been pending in the CDA for the last many years. The higher ups of the authority are looking unwilling and non-serious to take strict action against their own employees.

The pending inquiries include illegal appointments, theft of official files, illegal grant of house building finance, negligence in duty, financial embezzlements, favouring illegal housing societies, theft of official vehicles, issuance of fake licences for temporary cabins and many more.

It is a routine at the civic body that the top management constitutes a committee to probe the irregularity and malpractices pointed out by either internal or external sources, but the process is left unattended to favour their own fellows. The cases linger for years as nobody takes them seriously.

The authority not only uses “probes and inquiries” as delaying tactics while fixing the responsibility of any irregularity or corruption, but also extends undue favour to its employees by allowing them to continue their jobs.

Though, the member administration is taking one step after the another to speed up the process of finalisation of these inquires, but it should not be left halfway as he left his policy of the “right person for right job” in the past.

The internal investigating system of any organisation can help to improve its performance if people know that they would face disciplinary actions on prompt basis as a result of whidh they will avoid their involvement in malpractices.