ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: Mismanagement, inordinate delay, misuse and wastage of funds, kickbacks and commissions have been detected in mega development projects of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), the auditor general report 1999-2000 says.

This was revealed at a meeting of the Departmental Audit Committee (ADC) held at the CDA office on Monday, which was attended by interior ministry joint-secretary Arshad Malik, CDA chairman Mir Laiq Shah, CDA member (finance) Masud Muzzaffar, and other senior officials of the ministry and the Authority.

Some 85 major objections have been raised in the auditor-general report against irregularities committed by the CDA engineering wing. However, for the last three years, no action has been taken against any official concerned by the Authority, it observed.

Objections have also been raised in different mega projects, including construction of Faizabad interchange, Jail Park (Rawalpindi), Prime Minister House, National Police Foundation building, Kashmir Highway, Parliament Lodges, etc. These projects were completed at a cost of billions of rupees.

A source told Dawn that before publishing the report, the auditor general had asked the CDA to reply on some objections raised against its engineering wing.

However, the officials concerned paid no heed to these objections, and did not contact the audit department. Thus, the objections were published in the report, he added.

An official, who attended the meeting, told Dawn that some of the mega projects had been commissioned without approval of their PC-I, and some were completed against the specification mentioned in the PC-I.

He said most of objections were raised in the construction of Faizabad interchange. These major projects, he added, were launched on the instructions of political governments, who wanted their immediate completion. “As such projects have been completed in a haste, hence these are rife with a number of discrepancies”, he added.

The official said two objections were raised regarding construction of Simly Dam and its related projects.

The DAC’s meeting will continue for three days to discuss all objections, and suggest immediate removal of discrepancies.