Row over release of salaries to sanitation staff may lead to another crisis.

Byline: Kashif Abbasi

ISLAMABAD -- In a bid to avoid another crisis-like situation, the chief officer of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) has decided to approach the interior secretary to get approval for shifting of MCI's funds to the CDA account to ensure timely payment of salaries to the sanitation staff.

Though the MCI has Rs1.5 billion in its account, according to the mayor it could not utilise the amount due to absence of financial rules and regulations. As a result, the CDA has been paying salaries to the sanitation staff of the MCI.

Sources said Chief Officer Humayun Akhtar, who is member engineering CDA and the principal accounting officer of the MCI, and Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz are at loggerheads over the use of the amount. They said instead of shifting the amount to the CDA the mayor wanted to resolve issues such as distribution of assets and departments with the civic agency.

On several occasions, the mayor has claimed that as per a directive of the federal government the CDA was bound to release salaries of the sanitation staff.

But sources in CDA said the MCI was solely responsible for paying the salaries and the civic agency had nothing to do with it.

Principal accounting officer approaches interior secretary to approve shifting of funds from MCI to CDA

Because of the row, the sanitation staffers have suffered and almost every month observed a strike to get their salaries, creating problems for the citizens.

The sources said the chief officer requested the mayor to shift the amount to the CDA account so that salaries of the sanitation staff could be paid on time.

However, the mayor objected to it, saying without approval of financial rules he can't do so.

Meanwhile, the sources said the file, which was in the mayor's house, was taken out by the chief officer's staff after the mayor left...