Performance audit of Board of Directors ‘Lesco not providing auditable record despite reminders’

LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) has not provided auditable record pertaining to performance audit of its Board of Directors (BoD) despite repeated reminders, said Director General Audit Power Sh Muhammad Nadeem Amjad.

According to a letter written to the Secretary Ministry of Energy (Power Division), copy available with the Business Recorder, the DG Audit Power has brought the issue of “non-production of record” to his notice with a desire that he should direct concerned quarter to provide all the auditable records as required by the inspecting officer in order to complete audit execution timely.

It may be noted that the terms of reference (ToRs) for the performance audits, as well as, the audit has been finalized and the inspecting officer required the record on 2nd of August, followed by consecutive reminders on 7th and 8th of August respectively. However, said the letter, no required record has been provided by the Lesco management.

The Business Recorder had earlier reported that the performance audit has been initiated in follow up of the performance evaluation report of the concerned ministry with reference to the Discos.

The performance evaluation report of the Lesco was finalized dated 9th May 2023. According to the report, the T&D losses increased by 0.04 percent, followed by the computed recovery that remained 4.94 percent less than the target; AT&C losses increased from proportionate target by 4.50 percent, the overall receivable increased by Rs 42.083 billion compared with last year and receivables against private consumers increased by Rs 33.282 billion against the last year.

Similarly, the Lesco management could not achieve the target of installing new industrial and other connections and it carried out huge over-billing throughout the evaluation period. Besides, the percentage remittance as per CPPAG remained less than given target until March 2023. There were also three fatal accidents of employees during July 22 to March 23, which demonstrate unsatisfactory safety management and non-implementation of safety SOPs. In addition, six deaths of private citizens have also been reported during the ongoing monsoon season so far.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023