Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The composition of the CDA Board needs a through and minute revision by the federal government as the workload of the Member Environment, the Member Administration and the Member Finance has been reduced by a large scale after the devolution of powers, liabilities and assets between MCI and CDA.

The continuation of current sanction posts of board members can cause an imbalance while making important policy decisions as a member without having subordinate directorates is only a burden on the Authority and his presence in the board is only to influence and interfere in the board’s decision regarding other wings.

Currently, the organisational chart of the Capital Development Authority carries six wings headed by their separate members and a Chairman Secretariat held by the CDA Chairman.

After the establishment of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), the federal government decided to divide the powers, liabilities and assets between both the CDA and the MCI and in pursuance of the decisions of the government and the CDA Board’s endorsement, the Director Administration of the CDA has issued two notifications in this regard.

According to these notifications several directorates were completely placed under the administrative control of the MCI, whereas some directorates had been divided among both the organisations.

Although, the aforementioned process is in the court, but the fact is that the transferred directorates are directly reporting to the Chief Metropolitan Corporation (CMO) of the IMC, whereas, the work load of the Member Environment, the Member Administration and the Member Finance is significantly reduced as their subordinate directorates have been transferred or have been partially divided between the MCI and CDA.

For instance, the Member Administration was heading 16 directorates before the devaluation, but now only four complete and seven divided directorates are under his control, whereas the major directorates including health services, municipal administration, sports and culture, 1122, the CDA Hospital and schools have been placed under the control of the mayor, which almost ends the power and the functioning of the said wing.

The Environment Wing after the devolution did not need any separate member in the board as it is currently controlling only one Directorate, that of Regional Environment and its other directorates including environment (east and west), parks, zoo, F-9 Park, Lakeview Park and environment protection has been placed under the MCI.

Furthermore, the work load of the Finance Wing has been reduced by 50 per cent as its subordinate directorates including finance, audit, accounts and revenue have been partially divided between the MCI and CDA.

The major directorates of the Engineering Wing including water, roads, the MPO and sewerage treatments have also been transferred to the MCI, but it still has 14 complete and five divided directorates out of 26 under the CDA’s Member Engineering.

The planning wing holds significance as its only one “Kachi Abadi Cell” and three other divided directorates were transferred to the MCI. The existence of the Estate Wing will become a question because CADD minister and mayor both want to see an independent Building Control Authority. If their vision becomes a reality then the said wing will also lose its major directorate of Building Control.

Talking to Daily Times, Secretary CDA Board Asif Shahjahan, has accepted that the Board can be resized if required.