Bureaucracy blamed for failure of low-cost housing projects

KARACHI: 

The country’s bureaucracy, red tape and bribe culture are the main reasons behind the failure of several government low-cost housing schemes, according to a former chairman of Association of Builders and Developers (Abad) of Pakistan− a Karachi-based umbrella body for the country’s builders and developers.

Abad’s former chairman, who has worked on many low-cost government projects and experienced the bureaucratic hurdles firsthand, said he could not think of a single project that had been a success. He insisted it was not the government’s job to do such projects in the first place. This happens nowhere in the world, he said.

The former head of builders and developers national representative body had similar views for the projects that were done through public-private partnership or joint ventures with private builders.

Recalling his experience of working on Pakistan Steel Township project, a residential complex for the employees of state-owned steel giant Pakistan Steel Mills, he said the bureaucracy created several problems, leading to investigations into the project by the National Accountability Bureau.

Be it the Prime Minister Housing Scheme ‘Mera Ghar’ or a joint venture like Khuda Ki Basti, every single project led to failure, he said. Take the example of Khuda Ki Basti, a low-income housing project meant for the urban poor, he says. “The project is now home of drug addicts and land grabbers.”

The bribe culture in the bureaucratic circles increases the cost for contractors who then either compromise on quality of material or increase the price, said the former chairman. Additionally, the government departments have high overhead expenses, which also increase the projects’ cost. In most cases, the government housing projects that were meant for the poor were sold to middle and upper income groups, said the ex-chairman.

Besides bureaucratic hurdles, the builder said, these projects failed because the government failed to provide the households with basic urban services. Erecting walls and placing a roof on top doesn’t make a project successful, he said, adding that the developer needs to provide basic civic amenities — proper infrastructure for utilities, water and sanitation.

It is for such reasons that even 20 years after their construction, many government projects could not be dwelled upon, he said.

Since the portfolio of Sindh’s housing minister is currently vacant, this correspondent tried to contact Ali Mardan Shah, former minister for Low Cost Housing and Human Resources, but was unsuccessful. Shah, according to his personal assistant, held the portfolio for a brief period of one year, a period during which no work was done as such.

We also tried to contact Agha Taimoor Khan Pathan, former provincial minister for housing to inquire about the low-cost government projects of Sindh government but were unable to reach him.

While the government officials who supervised some of these projects were not available, the former chairman of Abad said it would be wrong to attribute the failure of these schemes to any particular government.

Governments change but bureaucracy remains the same, he says. It’s the bureaucracy that creates all kinds of hurdles in such projects, he said, adding that the private sector can certainly build low-cost housing projects. “We have built houses that were more affordable than the government’s low-cost projects and made sure people live there,” he said.