CDGK wasting expensive machines
KARACHI: City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has lost heavy construction and other machinery worth billions of rupees owing to negligence of the CDGK Works and Services Department (WSD), while many of the existing machines are on the verge of complete destruction, Daily Times has learnt.
According to sources, WSD had purchased 30 sweeping machines in 2005 and afterwards. Operation of these had been outsourced at the rate of Rs 2.7 million per month. The private contractor dumped the 30 sweeping machines after he had received around Rs 16.2 million for his services for six months, a source said.
The sources claimed that the contractor dumped the machines at the Machine Pool located in Mewah Shah Graveyard.
When these machines were first procured, Municipal Services Department (MSD) had pointed out to the former city nazim Mustafa Kamal that there were technical flaws in the tenders for the sweeping machines and the sweeping machines had technical faults and it was the supplier’s responsibility to remove the fault. He held a meeting with the supplier who refurbished the sweeping machines. The sources said that the poor planning had caused loss of public money and the CDGK continues to rely on sweepers for cleaning. One VRSM can do work of 100 sanitary workers. The expenditure incurred on wages of sanitary workers is around Rs 2 million per month while the total cost of operation incurred on 2 VRSMs is only Rs 800,000 a month.
The sources said that the MSD had time and again asked CDGK higher authorities to releases necessary funds for operation of the two VRSMs, about Rs 400,000 per month, but nothing has been done as yet.
The WSD had also dumped heavy machinery worth Rs 2.5 billion, which had come from the defunct Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and the defunct Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). It is not known where the heavy machinery from KDA and KMC has gone, the sources said.
Further, four complete asphalt plants have also been dumped, each of which had cost CDGK Rs 400 million. However, the disbursement of salaries and perks of more than 500 personnel of the asphalt plants continues, said the sources.
Source: Daily Times
Date:8/26/2010
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