ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Power expressed its ire at the Power Division on Tuesday for altering the age limit for the post of Managing Director, National Transmission and Despatch Company, (NTDC), while not doing anything to remove Kundas (hooks), over-billing, and poor performance of Discos Boards.
Presided over by Senator Saif Ullah Abro, the Committee also expressed serious annoyance at the willful absence of Chairman Nepra, Tauseef, misguiding the Prime Minister on renewable energy projects and writing a letter to Chairman Senate against Chairman Senate Standing Committee.
Power Division team headed by Additional Secretary-1, Musaddiq Ahmed Khan, and comprising officials from Gencos and Discos, was visibly red faced due to continuous criticism by the Chairman of Senate Committee.
The Committee deliberated over constitution of Power Planning and Monitoring Company (PPMC) in place of Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) and rehabilitation of de-licenced public sector power generation plants along with improvements of all Gencos. It also took up the status of petition pending before Nepra for tariff revision of Genco–I.
Additional Secretary Power Division noted that with the establishment of PPMC, following functions have been devolved to Discos: (i) matters of transfer/posting of employees to be dealt by Discos; (ii) HR & administrative power handed over to respective Discos; (iii) all officers working in other companies have been reverted to their parent companies; (iv) integrated seniorities maintained by Pepco have been disintegrated; and (v) promotion of officers BPS-19 and above have been devolved to Discos.
He maintained that all companies of power sector would also be brought under the umbrella of PPMC, to be overseen by a Board headed by the Secretary Power Division.
PPMC will be a monitoring body that will work under the Federal Government. The company is being restructured to introduce reforms in the power sector to develop and propose strategies for risk management and develop a central registry that will highlight un-electrified areas by Discos. It was observed that the Research and Development (R&D) wing will also be structured so as to promote research activities that will promote collaboration at local and global levels. PPMC will play an important role in developing indigenous plans for the power sector.
The Committee argued that PPMC should not be a white elephant like Pepco. Responding to the observation of Standing Committee, Additional Secretary Power Division said that wrongdoings of 30 years could not be rectified immediately, and requested that the company should be given some time to prepare a plan to deal with such issues.
The Committee took serious notice of bad performance of the Board of Directors of Discos with eight out of 10 Boards Chairmen former employees of Karachi Electric (KE).
Chairman Standing Committee also took notice of the exorbitant remuneration per meeting offered to BODs and directed that this must be reviewed.
Two CEOs revealed that the fee of Board members has been increased to Rs 60,000 from Rs 35,000 per meeting, in addition to other incentives. The committee was also informed that over Rs 300 million have been paid to the Board members of Discos since their taking charge. Chairman Standing Committee directed Power Division to revise the fee to Rs 15,000 from Rs 60,000.
On a question from Chairman Standing Committee, CEO Sepco revealed that Mahreen Aziz Khan has never attended a BoD meeting physically since he was posted as CEO.
The committee also showed displeasure at the performance of BODs and directed the Power Division to take action against non-implementation of recommendations of the Committee.
Regarding rehabilitation of de-licenced public sector power generation plants along with improvements of all GENCOs the Committee was informed that rehabilitation of GENCOs will be a policy decision of the Federal Government and will involve taking on board consultants and technical staff. In addition to this processes will have to be streamlined and matters related to tariff revision and generation licence renewal will be taken up with Nepra. The Committee showed concern regarding slow progress and asserted that expediting matters is essential for progress. It also directed that a report must be presented to the Committee within a week.
The Committee also took serious notice of the absence of Chairman, Nepra and asked Vice Chairman Nepra Rafique Ahmad Shaikh to convey the Committee’s reservations to him for willfully not attending the standing committee meeting scheduled for 10:30 am on the plea that he had to attend the Cabinet meeting which was scheduled at 1 pm.
“Ask Chairman Nepra to also share the letter written by Chairman Senate to him on social media. He will not be able to show his face after what Chairman Senate wrote in his letter in reply to his letter against members,” said Chairman Senate Standing Committee.
As Vice Chairman Nepra was leaving the Committee room, Chairman Standing Committee also stated that if Chairman Nepra does not attend the next meeting, he would be brought to the meeting room forcefully. He maintained that Nepra had destroyed the entire power sector.
The Committee also directed the Power Division to reinstate criteria including cut-off age limit of 62 years for MD NTDC from 58 years, given in the new advertisement. The Committee expressed concern that the criteria may have been reviewed to accommodate someone special.
Deliberating over the matter of paying owners of land acquired for the Suki Kinari Hydel Project the Committee was informed that this matter would best be taken up with the administrative machinery of the area and that it would be best to consult the Deputy Commissioner in this regard.
The meeting was attended by Senator Sana Jamali, Senator Saifullah Sarwar Khan Nyazee, Senator Haji Hidyat Ullah and senior officers of the Ministry of Power, NEPRA along with all concerned.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.