ISLAMABAD: The Senate Functional Committee on Devolution, Tuesday, expressed concerns over functioning of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and voiced displeasure over the “lack of transparency” in contracts with the directives to conduct forensic audit of the IPPs.
The committee, chaired by Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, discussed achievements of the Power Division in the last financial years – 2022-23 and 2023-24 – along with budget details and employees etc, besides other agenda items.
Taking up the agenda item, Chairperson Senator Dr Taimur expressed concerns over functioning of the IPPs and voiced displeasure over the “lack of transparency in contracts” and negligence associated with them.
Senate body seeks copies of IPP agreements
She remarked that the IPPs had caused significant hardships to the common man and called for accountability. The chairperson also directed the ministry to conduct a forensic audit of the IPPs.
She also directed details of standard contracts, a list of power plants’ capacity charges, and timelines for their operations should also be provided to the committee. The chairperson also issued directions to submit details of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects to the committee.
Earlier, Secretary of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Nadeem Irshad Kayani, briefed the Committee on the number of employees and the attached departments of the Ministry, as well as the details of the sports federations registered with the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).
He also provided an overview of the ministry’s human resources, including both sanctioned and currently working officers.
He informed the committee that there were 44 registered National Sports Federations, with the grants for those federations funded by the IPC Ministry.
Discussing the matters related to the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), Senator Dr Taimur inquired about the accountability of the heads of the federations and emphasised the importance of the inquiries’ outcomes.
She proposed that inquiries should be conducted across all federations.
Citing the example of Arshad Nadeem, a Pakistani javelin thrower and first Olympic gold medal winner in 32 years, she highlighted that 64 percent of Pakistan’s population was under 30 years, yet that demographic remained unrecognised, despite significant budget allocations yielding unsatisfactory results.
The committee also sought a list of federations’ chairpersons and the duration of their services, as well as details of the Olympic Committee’s chairpersons and their tenure.
Referring the poor performance of the national cricket team, she questioned as to who will oversee the affairs of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) given its current poor performance.
The committee also unanimously decided to devolve the Inter-Provincial Coordination Ministry, as required by the 18th Constitutional Amendment. The committee members emphasised the need for a mechanism to address surplus employment within the IPC Ministry and also decided that the matter would be referred to the Establishment Division.
Those who attended the meeting included senators, Zamir Hussain Ghumro, Fawzia Arshad, and Poonjo Bheel.
The secretary of Inter Provincial Coordination, the secretary of Power Division Dr Muhammad Fakhr-e-Alam Irfan, and senior officials from the relevant departments also participated in the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
Comments
Comments are closed.