June 20, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, June 19: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has formed a committee to formulate a set of rules to streamline administrative and financial affairs of the City Development and Municipal Department, officials said.

The NAB took initiative after receiving complaints regarding inefficiency and financial irregularities in the CDMD and to remove ambiguity about its rules of business, said an official in the NAB Peshawar.

“The department’s internal mechanism is very vague and even it has no rules of business. Its legal status is not clear,” an official said.

Official said that under section 33c of the NAB Ordinance, the chairman had powers to constitute a committee, comprising officers of NAB or other persons or organisations from the private and public sectors to take measures for the prevention of corruption and corrupt practices public sector organisations.

The committee, he said, would propose recommendations to clarify powers and functions of the CDMD. The NWFP government could make amendments to the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, and incorporate these recommendations, they said.

The City District Nazim Haji Ghulam Ali said that he had held meetings with the director-general of the NAB and discussed the district government’s reservations about performance and functions of the CDMD.

The government abolished Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) after the introduction of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001 and the then governor created City Municipal and Development Department to execute development schemes in the district.

All assets and staff of the defunct body were transferred to the newly-created CMDD, which was headed by the director-general.

Later, the provincial government replaced the CMDD with the CDMD under section 54(3) of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001.

According to the ordinance, it was created for the purpose of better co-ordination, more organised management of development works and more effective administrative and financial control of development authorities, water and sanitation agencies or boards and solid waste management bodies.

The new department (CDMD) was created without formulating rules of business and its powers and functions were not defined, sources said.

The department received Rs 2.74 billion from the city district government under annual development programme for financial year 2005-06.

Officials said that the CDMD, instead of functioning under the supervision of the district government, had assumed the role of a parallel body and ignored the district authorities.

An official in the CDMD said that legally the city district Nazim was their boss, but practically he had no role in the affairs of the CDMD.

“In legal terms, any authority who allocates annual budget to a department or organisation has control over its affairs, but in the case of CDMD it is still not clear under whose command it functions,” he said.