ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sought complete record of payment made by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to landowners of sectors I-17 and H-16 in the wake of allegations about massive forged payment by the finance wing.

Sources in the CDA told Dawn that the FIA had sought complete record of the payments as there were reports of duplicate payments of over 500 million to the affected persons of the said sectors.

The affected people are those, whose land had been acquired by the CDA and were entitled to get land compensation.

The sources said the mega corruption case emerged in February when it was alleged that the finance wing of the CDA had made duplicate payments to a number of landowners, mainly during the years 2019-20 and 21. Member Estate in the CDA Board Afnan Alam took notice of the issue and ordered a probe and audit.

In the meanwhile, taking notice of the media reports about the alleged scam, the FIA also started the probe.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Alam claimed that his office had itself pointed out these alleged massive irregularities.

The CDA in 2008-09 had acquired the land for the two sectors after paying Rs840,000 for each kanal. According to CDA officials, around 65pc payments have been made against the land acquired more than a decade ago. However, it was noticed that in many cases, a number of owners were paid twice by the officials concerned, which caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.

A senior official in the finance wing confirmed to Dawn that there was an “issue of double payments in many cases, adding that besides corrupt officials of the CDA, the involvement of some private persons, including bank officials, could also not be ruled out.

The February’s letter of the member estate had requested the finance wing to take immediate and necessary steps to examine the reported pattern of complaints in payments, especially in sectors H-16 and I-17, and conduct a thorough audit/inspection of the payments in line with the existing codal formalities, rules and regulations.

The letter also requested the finance wing to determine whether the payments were made to the actual affected persons and whether the necessary record was available for further verification. The sources said the finance wing got an audit of payment done and pointed out duplicate payment in a number of cases.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2023