CDA capers: 375 officials got promotions on ‘fake’ documents, states report

An internal fact-finding committee of the Capital Development Authority has made some stunning revelations in its report on violations of rules and regulations in the re-designation and upgradation of low-cadre posts in the civic agency during the PPP regime.

The committee found that some 375 CDA officials got illegal promotions and other related benefits based on fake or forged documentation, said an official privy to the development.

The internal inquiry was carried out following the directions of the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC), commonly known as the labour court, which was earlier moved by some officials for resizing of residential plots given to them by the authority on the basis of their previous designations.

In government service, two separate terms — re-designation and upgradation of posts — are rarely used. Occasionally, lower-grade employees serving on dead-end posts such as tube well operators are upgraded as a way to give a salary increase to the employee, but the job title remains the same.

This and other similar government service rules were widely abused at the authority in the past to benefit hundreds of employees.

The authority did not limit itself to one of the two options — re-designating or upgrading — but went ahead and did both simultaneously.

A member of the inquiry committee said the findings had been finalized, but would not share any of the details.

In the past, hundreds of employees benefited from the practice and after redesignation and upgradation of their posts, they obtained departmental promotions. Later, these employees moved different courts with pleas that the CDA gave them smaller residential plots on the basis of their previous positions and now that their scales had been raised, their plots allocations should be upgraded.

Similarly, some officials pleaded the court to shift of their residential plots from sectors where land is cheaper to the costliest ones.

The committee found that in almost all of the 375 cases, the officials either attached fake or forged documents about their service history to qualify for upgradation, or in some cases, the officials mandated to take decisions regarding upgradation and re-designation abused their discretionary powers to the benefit of employees who were not meeting the required and defined criteria.

The official said it is expected that the NIRC will send a reference to the National Accountability Court (NAB) asking it to investigate the findings of the CDA committee.

Source: tribune