Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The corrupt mafia managing the affairs of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has destroyed the record of the Diplomat Bus Service scam in order to get rid of the evidence of its corruption.

A well informed source told the Daily Times that documents relating to this scam worth millions of rupees were missing from the office of the Chairman CDA.

The source said that the National Accountability Bureau NAB was investigating the scam on the directions of the parliamentary committee on public accounts but the probe had now run into snags by the non-cooperative attitude of the CDA officers.

Former Chairmen Capital Development Authority including Karmran Lashari, Farkhan Iqbal and other senior officers are likely to be questioned in this massive corruption deal along with private contractors who are the beneficiaries of the corrupt practice.

Former Chairmen CDA awarded the bus shuttle contract to a private firm, flouting public rules particularly the public procurement rules thus causing massive financial loss to the national exchequer.

The Auditor General of Pakistan, while auditing the accounts of the Capital Development Authority unearthed the scam and later on apprised the PAC members that the Diplomat Bus Service contract was awarded without observing the rules.

The PAC met under Khurshid. The chairman directed the chairman NAB to initiate inquiry into the scandal and identify and punish the responsible public officers and recover the plundered public money.

The national accountability officer contacted the chairman CDA and sought the record of this matter, but later on it was found out that corrupt officers of the CDA had destroyed the entire files of the record in order to conceal the facts from the investigating officer and the public as well.

The source said that on the direction of the then chairman CDA the record of this scam was prepared but before it was handed over to NAB it disappeared. This resulted in NAB halting its investigation into the scam.

NAB officers have repeatedly written to the CDA chairman for the record but all their efforts went vain.

The NAB investigation officer had apprised the latest postion of this investigation and sought the help of the PAC for summoning the record from the CDA bosses who are enmeshed in corruption and malpractices.

A NAB source said that the PAC would be informed about the missing of the documents from the CDA.

Corruption among the officers is a hallmark of the CDA which is the most tainted public department of the federal government. The chairman CDA has been forced to go a on long leave after he refused to give in to the directions of the CADD minister.