Power companies Boards: National Assembly body concerned over non-professional members

The National Assembly Special Committee on power crisis on Wednesday expressed serious concerns over the non-professional members of the Boards of Directors (BoDs) of companies and sought to determine their professional expertise. The meeting of the committee was held under the chairmanship of Engineer Usman Khan Taraki.
Sources told Business Recorder that members of the Boards are appointed with the approval of Prime Minister who always replaces recommended names with his own favourite persons. This practice is being implemented in most of the companies. The committee was told that the power sector incurred losses of Rs 227 billion during the last fiscal year.
Out of which Rs 65 billion was due to technical losses, Rs 26 billion due to line losses above approved Nepra limit, and Rs 10 billion on GST on uncollected bills. The tariff differential subsidy added another Rs 110 billion while Rs 16 billion resulted due to tubewells subsidy in Balochistan and subsidised electricity to Azad Kashmir. The committee expressed concern over the plan to grant autonomy to discos through boards of directors, as the government's role in monitoring would be completely eliminated.
Farooq Saeed Khan said the board of directors of Fesco is headed by a cable operator and also includes a petrol pump operator and a school owner lady. The textile sector has minimal representation. Secretary Imtiaz Kazi said that professional people, having experience, were appointed in the boards. However, the Ministry of Water and Power had no role in their appointment as the Cabinet Committee on Restructuring, headed by the Finance Minister, had made the recommendations, which were approved by the Prime Minister.
Chairman Taraki said that the role of the Board in the appointment of CEO could not be ruled out and they would be using influence in the award of tenders. He ordered providing complete details of the directors of all discos to the committee.
According to a press release, the committee expressed pleasure that there had been no de-rating in the installed capacity of hydel power stations, despite the fact that some power stations were constructed about 50 years ago. The committee appreciated Wapda for excellent operation and maintenance of these hydel power stations. The committee also appreciated Wapda for initiating mega projects in water and hydropower sectors, 969 MW-Neelum Jehlum, 4500 MW-Diamer Basha Dam, 1410 MW-Tarbela 4th Extension and 4320 MW-Dasu in particular.
The committee expressed hope that these projects would add a sizeable quantum of low-cost electricity to the national grid to help overcome power shortages and stabilise power tariff in the country. The committee also directed Wapda to look into the possibility for upgradation of its small hydel power stations--Rasul, Nandipur, Renala Khurd, Kurram Garhi.