ISLAMABAD: It may sound incredulous that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) continues to function without an approved budget when the first quarter of the financial year has passed by. But it is true.

What is particularly strange is that the federal government has delayed its approval because, it is said, the budget prepared by the CDA did not reflect a Rs5 billion soft loan that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had granted it.

However, insiders confided to Dawn that the soft loan arrived in the first week of July after the CDA Board had finalised itsbudget which it funds from its own resources on June 29 and forwarded it to the Cabinet Division for approval.

An official from CDA`s financial wing, on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn: `We revised the CDA budgetary documents accordingly and submitted them to the Cabinet Division but are still awaiting the approval.

His colleague interjected: `You can well imagine how the bureaucracy works. It`s almost mid October and the civic body is still without an approved budget.

CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid, however, was optimistic that approval would arrive within the next few days.

`In order to meet urgentrequirements we get funding from the finance wing on special request,` he said.

This indicates that the absence of approval was not much of an obstacle in running the affairs of the CDA.

One CDA official noted that for two months the office of finance wing had been without a head and Member Planning and Design Waseem Ahmed Khan, who was officiating in that position, had been too busy with his own department to pursue the budget`s approval from the federal government.

CDA sources said that the Rs5 billion soft loan was extended by the prime minister for rehabilitating and improving infrastructure and civic amenities in Islamabad.CDA spokesman Sajid said a contract was signed for the first phase of that work.

`But due to some procedural issues we could not start the work on September 2 as scheduled. Things have been almost finalised by now and you will see start of the work in the next few days,` he said.

The CDA is a self-financed body. However, it has to get its budget approved by the Cabinet Division. The CDA Board approved a budget of Rs37.696 billion for the Enancial year 2015-16.

Budgetary documents record the main receipts of over Rs35 billion from the CDA`s own resources, such as auction of land, and Rs2 billion from the federal government.