What the auditors found
An SBCA audit report covering financial year 2024-25 says Pakistan’s Auditor General has recorded deep gaps in how the Sindh Building Control Authority runs money, keeps books, and polices construction across Sindh. The review says the body did not keep tidy accounts, did not finish its yearly financial statements, and left internal checks too weak to stop rule-breaking.
In plain terms, the SBCA is the provincial office that clears building plans and watches construction. The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) is the state auditor that inspects public bodies’ spending and systems. According to the findings, those systems at the authority fell short on oversight, cash handling, and enforcement.
Slower clearances and risky permits
Auditors said the Single Window Facility—the desk that processes building plans—had become far slower. Time to clear plans rose to more than four times the 2019 level, they wrote.
The same review said construction go-aheads went out for several tall projects even though required No Objection Certificates (NOCs)—official clearances for selling and advertising homes or shops—were missing. That gap, it warned, can leave buyers open to disputed sales and court trouble.
Plans and permits also went to developers who held neither an SBCA licence nor membership of the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD), against set rules. The auditors urged disciplinary steps against staff who signed off such files.
Fees, mortgaged plots, and missing files
Private lawyers were engaged without the Sindh Law Department’s required nod, the review said. Legal consultancy costs stood at Rs37.4 million, and Rs52.2 million went to an information-technology firm, with questions raised over how that firm was hired and paid.
Builders must often mortgage plots to the authority as security until a project finishes and gets an occupancy certificate. Auditors said some developers instead marketed those pledged plots for public booking, calling the practice a breach of the rules.
The report also criticised weak action against illegal or unsafe structures, missing technical papers before demolition work, and use of contractors without proper equipment or skill. Most serious for accountability, the authority did not produce core financial and building-control papers when auditors asked. The AGP sought an inquiry into vanished or withheld records, naming of culpable officers, and action for the administrative and money failures listed.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Sindh ki building authority ka hisaab-kitaab aur rules pe follow-up kamzor nikla hai. Building plans ab pehle se kai guna der se pass hotay hain, aur kuch projects ko sales NOC ke baghair permission mil gayi. Logon ke liye yeh matlab hai ke flat ya shop book karte waqt papers aur licence check karna zaroori hai. Auditors ne missing files aur bade consultancy bills ki bhi investigation maangi hai.
