Lieutenant General Sajjad Akram ,

Deputy Chairman ERRA

dc@erra.gov.pk

With my vision that our actions shall be guided by the principles of integrity, accountability and transparency, sincerity of purpose, our team at ERRA works with total commitment, fullest involvement, and with clear sense of direction to accomplish the assigned tasks within the given time frame, without compromising either on quality of work or on our neutrality and selflessness.

Year 2008 had been momentous as we not only introduced certain Institutional changes within ERRA Headquarters and its affiliates, but, also made important policy decisions to ensure speedy reconstruction and rehabilitation in affected areas. During 2008 while focusing both on hard-core and soft-core activities, we made intensive efforts to bring elected representatives on board. Moreover, in addition to introducing unconventional construction technologies, specifically, in Education Sector, a mechanism to ensure uninterrupted fund flow to SERRA and PERRA was evolved to resolve the irksome issue of delayed payments to contractors which adversely affected the speed of reconstruction. The establishment of Dedicated Engineering Wings at SERRA and PERRA, to oversee reconstruction work, also augmented the efforts and speed of reconstruction works. Resultantly the quantum of reconstruction work completed within one year is two times more than the total reconstruction work completed during the previous three years. Similarly, the financial resources dispersed for all sectors, barring rural housing sector, during the last one year, exceeded the total financial expenditures made during the previous three years. Details are available on our Website

I am pleased to share that old Balakot Recovery Program worth Rupees 100 million, has been initiated to improve the quality life of people of Old Balakot till such time they shift to the new location, i.e., Bakriyal. The construction work in Bakriyal is progressing at full pace, while plans for peripheral development of Old Balakot are being developed for launching in near future. All formalities regarding Urban Development of Azad Jammu and Kashmir by Chinese Companies, a project which was lying dormant for couple of years now have been finalized, and Chinese teams are already on ground to undertake development works at Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot and Bagh. Guided by the principles of providing quality service, facilitating donors and sponsors and engaging community to infuse the spirit of ownership, our efforts have already started bearing fruit and in coming days Insha-Allah a further boom in reconstruction activities will be visible to all.

Adhering to the Prime Minister’s Directive for austerity, we have achieved an overall saving of over Rupees 23 Billion in various sectors due to our timely intervention, review and monitoring of the projects. VIP culture has also been abolished and routine expenditures drastically reduced. Moreover, NESPAK’s capacity has been enhanced manifolds, and above all for the first time in Pakistan, ERRA has introduced strict financial discipline by introducing “Financial Management System” in a Government Organization which gives online visibility of funds flow.

I congratulate my team for outstanding work and commitment they have demonstrated to accomplish the assigned task. As you visit our website you will see that with this team we have been able to accelerate the pace of work by leaps and bounds and push the pending work fulfilling our promise made to people of the earthquake affected areas, while following the premise of “Build Back Better”.