ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Water Resources has sought Prime Minister Office's (PMO) help for payment of an amount of over Rs230 billion for Water and Power Development Authority's (Wapda's) outstanding against CPPA-G and Power Division. In this regard, Joint Secretary Water Resources, (Water) Syed Mehar Ali Shah has written a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office, noting the financial woes of Wapda and its implication on its development projects.
On September 21, 2020, Ministry of Water Resources wrote a letter to Power Division with regard to Prime Minister's office communication of September 16, 2020 on Diamer Basha dam held on December 2019.
In this regard, Ministry of Water Resources conveyed to the concerned stakeholders that the total outstanding receivables from CPPA-G have reached Rs230.6 billion. Details of outstanding receivables are as follows: (i) opening balance (July 2020) was Rs221.789 billion; (ii) add hydel electricity billing uptill August 2020, Rs20.697 billion; (iii) less receipts from CPPA-G uptill September 20, 2020, Rs11.902 billion.
The breakdown of the outstanding receivables are as follows: (i) energy receivables, Rs122.091 billion; (ii) payable to Wapda against serviced NHP loans (Rs80.15 billion), Rs13.239 billion and; (iii) NHP payable to provinces (GoKP, Rs44.527 billion, GoPb Rs50.726 billion), Rs95.254 billion.
The country's energy sector circular debt has crossed Rs2.3 trillion due to inability of power sector to clear outstanding receivables.
Ministry of Water Resources argued that Wapda has been repeatedly taking up the issue with Power Division for payment of the huge outstanding amount as this has debilitated its capacity to meet obligatory payments including O&M expenses, debt servicing and equity injection in quintessential development projects.
CPPA-G has been making erratic releases and is presently releasing funds against monthly invoice of November 2018 which is a delay of almost two years.
"If this trend continuous unabated, we will have serious repercussions on the pace of our development projects," said, Member Water (Wadpa).
Joint Secretary Ministry of Water Resources, has requested Prime Minister’s Office to direct Power Division to clear on immediate basis.
The AGP has unearthed 129 cases of irregularities in procurement, assets management issues and service delivery in Ministry of Water Resources and its attached departments including Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).
The AGP's key audit findings are as follows: (i) irregularities in procurement and contract management amounting to Rs768.675 billion were observed in 79 cases; (ii) assets management issues amounting to Rs65.081 billion have been pointed out in 16 cases; (iii) management of accounts with commercial banks related issues amounting to Rs171.21 million were noted in 3 cases; (iv) HR/Employees related issues amounting to Rs11.056 billion were raised in 4 cases; (v) issues relating to value for money and service delivery amounting to Rs287.938 billion were observed in 18 cases and; (vi) there were 9 other cases amounting to Rs9.096 billion.
The AGP has recommended that the management needs to comply with the public procurement rules, 2004, Wapda procurement rules and contract manual, 2014 for procurement of goods and services. The management needs to devise strong and reliable mechanism for renewal, encashment and verification of performance bank guarantees to avoid financial loss/ fraud.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
Comments
Comments are closed.