September 22, 2003	Monday	Rajab 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 21: The government has turned down the plea of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) regarding payment of Rs4 billion outstanding dues reportedly spent by the authority on various mega projects, a source in the CDA told Dawn on Sunday.

The source said the finance division was of the view that most of the projects were executed without any approval of the government, therefore, it was not responsible for the payments.

The finance division has informed the CDA that only those projects which are executed under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) are funded by the government, other than that projects are financed by the authority concerned, the source said.

Earlier, the interior ministry had asked the finance division to pay the outstanding dues to the CDA so that this amount could be utilized on different uplift projects.

Interior Minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat told Dawn that, “if this money is given to the CDA, we can bring drastic changes to Islamabad to facilitate the people”.

The minister agreed that the authority had been demanding the amount for the last many years, but the government was not paying any heed.

He said the CDA had spent the amount on the maintenance of official buildings, payment of utility dues of government departments and mega-development projects initiated on the government’s instruction.

“The CDA alone cannot recover the outstanding dues from government departments, therefore it has sought the ministry’s help for this purpose,” Mr Hayat said.

The CDA was facing acute financial crisis and if these outstanding dues are recovered, it will be able to stand on its feet, he said.

According to a data compiled by the CDA, some 42 main government departments and their buildings including defunct chief executive secretariat, Wapda, PTCL, Kashmir House, Balochistan House, Sindh House, Punjab House, Frontier House, Foreign Office and Pak-Secretariat are defaulters of over Rs1 billion.