ISLAMABAD: The corrupt management of ERRA misappropriated huge public funds allocated for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the poor. The funds were specially meant for those who were badly affected from the devastating earthquake that jolted the northern areas of Pakistan in 2005. Then military ruler General (R) Musharraf set up ERRA for resuscitating the affected people and allocated billion rupees of funds for this purpose. As expected the corrupt officers who were posted in ERRA embezzled huge funds with the connivance of construction firms by misusing their official powers. This has been revealed in an audit report availed with the Daily Times. ERRA officers earmarked more than 410 million rupees for clearing the debris of the devastated building from the city of Muzzafarabad, the capital of Azad and Jammu Kashmir. The audit report say that corrupt officers, with the connivance with the Muzaffarabad Municipal committee officers, committed massive financial irregularities while purchasing machinery. The machinery was later on handed over to private companies. The report says that oil and diesel worth 8.3 million rupees was purchased to operate the machinery but the irony is that the concerned officers also misappropriated huge funds from the deal and built their own lot. The audit officer termed the payment of 50 million rupees paid to private firms as illegal and directed the secretary to hold a fresh inquiry for pinpointing the responsible corrupt officers. The Basic Health unit that was built in Neelam was caved in before completion but ERRA’s corrupt management paid six million rupees to construction firms. This has now been declared as an illegal act and the Auditor General of Pakistan has directed the federal government to recover this amount from the contractor and the officers who allowed the payment. The audit report also pointed out a huge corruption of RS 7.8 million which surfaced in the construction of two basic health units built in the premises of the union council of Said Pure district, Neelum. The audit report alleged that ERRA’s top management benefited from two private firms BKZ and Cadd creet private ltd the sum of 90 million rupees while awarding the contract to them. During the construction of Bagh ARJA Road, the construction firm was paid an additional 234 million rupees and the auditor general has urged the federal government to recover the money paid illegally to private companies. ERRA top management was so generous to private firms that during the release of billion rupees to these firms the income tax and GST was not deducted from their accounts which the audit officers quote as a serious crime that must be probed.