The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) discussed the highlighted audit paras of the Ministry of Housing and Works for fiscal year 2019-20. The meeting of the committee was held at Parliament House with MNA Rana Tanveer Hussain in chair. The Director General FGEHA gave a detailed briefing about various issues including the procedure of allotment of different categories of plots. The audit officials told the committee that the scheme was launched by the FGEHF as a joint venture and few people took many plots by giving false affidavits and requested the committee to halt the allotment of plots in addition to the federal government employees. The Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) was initially established as a foundation cell in the Ministry of Housing during 1984, however it was converted into Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) through an ordinance in July 2019. The stated objective of the FGEHA was to initiate, launch and sponsor housing schemes for serving/retired government employees to assist them have a house at the time of retirement. However, since its formation FGEHA could not complete a project clear from scams and financial embezzlement of its employees and higher echelons. According to reports, the FGEHA had collected Rs. One lac each from its members as registration fee and hooked them for years in the hope of their own homes. In fact, most Departmental housing bodies usually initiate joint ventures in collaboration with Private property dealers/ developers, who lure the officials concerned into personal gains and conclude unilateral contracts with the government department. After grabbing money from the concerned department, Private property dealers cause delays on different pretexts. At the end, the government department cannot avail any other option except legal action for violation of the contract. On the other hand, the officials involved also keep slow to escape their corruption cases and avoid blackmailing property dealers, thus the dream of poor government employees ends up in disappointment and distress. Therefore, PAC is requested to refer such cases to NAB, so the culprits can be dealt with iron hand and the dream of poor government employees could be met accordingly.
