ISLAMABAD, July 1: The computerization project of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is still incomplete despite a lapse of three years, sources in the CDA told Dawn on Tuesday.

The project which was to be completed within nine months in 2001, still requires a lot of work.

The sources said despite lapse of three years, the authority has failed to complete the computerization project. The reasons behind delay and incompletion of the project are financial constraints and appointment of inexperienced staff, they added.

They said a bio-medical engineer, working with the Capital Hospital, was appointed director Computer Directorate of the CDA with no previous experience of computers.

The cost of the project is stated to be Rs1.3 million. However, a private firm which was engaged for the computerization project by the CDA has claimed that it spent 100 per cent more money than the project cost for the salaries of its staff owing to the inordinate delay.

The sources said the CDA’s clerks had been given the task of data entry despite the fact that they had no such experience.

They said another reason for the delay in commissioning of the project was that any sort of malpractice and corrupt elements in the CDA could be exposed if the process of computerization runs successfully.

Similarly, red tapism and inordinate delay in file work will no more be the case if complete information of all the CDA directorates is provided on its website.

The sources revealed that most of the information saved in the computers had been deleted intentionally to keep the people dependent on the CDA employees for seeking information about their concerned matters.

“If complete information is provided through computers, those CDA officials who have been allotted a number of plots in Islamabad through illegal means would also be exposed,” a source said.

He said the CDA, on the recommendation of a former chairman, had appointed a consultant at a monthly salary of Rs15,000. However, the consultant went abroad without completing the project and intimating anybody in the CDA.

Following the consultant’s exit, an electrical engineer, working with the Capital Hospital, was appointed in charge of the computer section, he added.

The sources said except the directorates of estate management-I and revenue, no other directorate of the CDA had completed their data entry work.