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| April 12, 2007 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1428 |
NWFP govt in a fix over construction body
PESHAWAR, April 11: The NWFP government is in a quandary over the future of Abaseen Construction Corporation (ACC), a subordinate body of the works and services department.
An official of the works and services department told Dawn that the government seemed to be unclear whether it wanted to run the body in its existing shape or devolve it to districts as proposed by an appraisal committee in November.
The government, said the official, had recently given the additional charge of the ACC’s managing director to a senior official of the department. The post fell vacant following the expiry of the contract of the body’s first managing director on Nov 5.
In November the appraisal committee, constituted by the then chief secretary Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi, had recommended dissolution of the ACC following reviewing its performance since its establishment.
The ACC had been established under an ordinance in 2002 to undertake tasks relating to construction, repairs and maintenance of highways and roads, establish, maintain and operate a machinery pool and undertake other civil engineering construction and development works, surveys, evaluation and consultancy services.
On Nov 10, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had been briefed on recommendations of the appraisal committee, which mainly related to the overall functioning of the ACC.
At the meeting, the chief minister had directed finance and works departments to furnish within one week details of last two years’ expenditures and earnings of the ACC from the government machinery.
The ACC managing director, who had raised objections over most of recommendations of the appraisal committee, had also been directed to submit similar details.
According to official sources, a meeting was supposed to be held within a week for taking a final decision, but the meeting could not be held even after four months, which created uncertainty about the future of the body.
The appraisal committee in its report had pointed out that functions earlier performed by the mechanical division, Peshawar, and the machinery sub-division, Abbottabad, were now being carried out by the ACC.
The committee had maintained that the ACC had 409 machines, 109 of which were in working condition and the rest were out of order.
It had proposed winding up of the ACC by assigning its functions to districts because under the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, works and service was a devolved department.
The committee had also proposed that machinery used during natural disasters should be placed in districts exposed to natural calamities or redistributed to defunct divisional headquarters under the administrative control of the works and services department.
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