Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Financial irregularities on a large scale have cropped up in the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) during the last regime of Asif Zardari when Pakistan Muslim-Q MNA ,Hamid Hiraj, was chairman of this state institution.

Former president of Pakistan Musharraf set up this institution to address the issue of the poor people of AJK and northern areas who were hit by an earthquake in 2005.

The government and international community generated billions of rupees to rehabilitate the people and to reconstruct the public building which were damaged by this natural calamities.

A report submitted before the parliamentary committee which oversees the public account, revealed that the ERRA corrupt official released one billion and 400 million rupees to the contractor who did not complete their projects.

According to rules and procedures, the amount could only be released to the contractor when they produce a completion certificate to the official.

The document says a huge amount was given to eight construction companies which failed to produce a completion certificate to the concerned official of ERRA.

Another corrupt official of ERRA who was appointed in Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad guaranteed 96 million rupees to the 10 construction contractors.

The document says that these public officialsl awarded the contract of 956 million rupees to these 10 contractors and without the observing the concerned rules and procedure the money which was deposited in the government accounts as gauarantee was released.

When a senior official was informed about this corruption, he has now launched an investigation against the public officers but sadly more than five years had passed no government employees has been held responsible and no punitive action against them has been taken.

The report also highlighted another corruption detail about the hiring of a consultant. The report say exen Bagh hired the consultative service of a private company on inflated charges and paid it 4.4 million rupees more than the agreed fees.

The report says that with the connivance of ERRA officials, the municipal committee Muzaffarabad hired different machines for construction purpose from ERRA but the concerned officers neither retrieved the machine nor recovered hired from MC.

The parliamentary committee is likely to start its proceeding against financial irregularities on a large scale and mismanagement in ERRA and likely to hold the responsible officials for accountable.