Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has refused to pay over Rs 5.623 billion outstanding land-use dues of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK). "The Electricity Act allows the company to use the government land for its installations like different grid stations, sub-stations, offices, electric poles and underground cables etc," said Naveed Ismail, Chief Executive Officer of the KESC, while answering a question during a press conference here on Monday.
It is worth mentioning that the CDGK had been demanding over Rs 5.623 billion from the power utility as outstanding dues for the use of its land. The city government had even threatened to seal or evacuate its land being used by the company if the dues, which the KESC owed for the last 50 years, had not been paid.
During the press conference, the company showed a video clip, showing an employee of the KESC taking bribe from a customer. According to the KESC's Chief Executive, the employee was busy with demanding extra money for making a concession in the customer's bill.
The customer made available the video to the company's high ups who fired the employee. Admitting corruption in the KESC, Naveed Ismail, said the company had been keeping an eye on those staff members who were involved in taking bribes, commissions and other incentives from the customers.
He appealed to the people and media personnel to register complaints regarding the involvement of company's staff, at the offices of concerned authorities of the company. To a question, the CEO said Nepra's team would visit the company on June 30, to investigate into the causes of a massive power breakdown in the city on June 17.
"We have no hesitation to provide all the information regarding the matter," he added. In the recently launched "Speak-Up" campaign, Naveed Ismail said the utility had received over 120 cases which were under examination and the culprits, whether insiders or outsiders, would be brought to book.
He said the KESC would soon be introducing a centralised software for registration of complaints through which the consumers would receive a ticket number and their matter would be resolved within a given period of time, while the company's central offices would be monitoring the process. To another question about level of corruption in the KESC, the CEO said no one could gauge it with certainty. "We only want to play it safe so that no innocent person gets hurt."
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