KARACHI: Expressing concern over financial irregularities and poor performance of local bodies institutions, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Wednesday placed them under the supervisory control of high-ranking bureaucrats.

This decision was taken at a meeting presided over by the chief minister and attended by Sindh Local Government Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and other officers concerned.

Under the decision, all divisional commissioners have been assigned the role of controlling authority for municipal committees/ corporations/ district councils concerned. Similarly, deputy commissioners will be controlling authority for town committees of their districts concerned to “maintain financial discipline, efficient and transparent utilisation of development funds and to ensure proper cleanliness and developments works by these institutions”. Assistant commissioners will act as administrative officers for town committees of taluka / subdivision concerned and a deputy commissioner of the district will be the controlling authority of all the town committees of the district.

The deputy commissioners will also work as administrative officer of municipal committees / district councils and the divisional commissioner will be the controlling authority of all municipal committees and district councils in his division.

Under the decision, all controlling authorities have been made responsible for the conduct of audit inspection, revision of budget estimates and re-appropriation of funds of municipal committees / district councils / town committee. They will also monitor the overall performance of these institutions and report to the chief secretary periodically.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister expressed his displeasure over the reports of poor performance and financial irregularities in municipal and town committees which he said were causing difficulty to the common man.

He said despite releasing sufficient funds to municipal and town committees by the government, citizens were facing hardship and warned the officers that whosoever was found involved in irregularities would be dealt with accordingly.

Local Government Minister Memon informed the meeting participants that he had called six-month expenditure reports from all Town Municipal Officers (TMOs) and issued show cause notices to 79 TMOs while five of them were suspended for want of financial discipline.

Polio teams

The chief minister, while talking to a delegation of the officials engaged in the anti-polio campaign led by Dr Azra Pechuho, chairperson of oversight committee on polio, directed the Inspector General Police to ensure foolproof security arrangements for the polio teams, especially in the metropolis.

He also directed officers to separate the high-risk union councils from the rest of the areas of Karachi and ensure security and 100 per cent coverage in the anti-polio campaign. He said that an assessment of positive polio cases showed that except for one all polio cases in Sindh belonged to families that came from the tribal areas.

“We must cover each and every transit point on roads, railway stations and airports.”

He said that an emergency cell had also been established in Karachi, but more efforts for anti-polio vaccination were needed in the tribal areas from where this crippling disease was spreading to other parts of the country, especially in Karachi. The Additional IG of Karachi Police, Ghulam Qadir Thebo, assured the health department of providing 1,000 policemen for high-risk union councils and additional 1,000 police personnel for the remaining union councils and advised them to launch their campaign in phases.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014