Ministry of Water and Power claims that the German Bank KfW has apologised for controversial report on Pakistan''s power sector. An official said that Ministry of Water and Power had written a letter to the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) to call the officials of German Bank and question the "credulity" of report. A couple of days ago, Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Asif told Business Recorder that the report was inaccurate and a written notice has been served to the German Bank.
According to an official statement, Ministry of Water & Power appreciates the gesture of KfW, the German Bank working on bilateral support for development projects, in their letter to the Ministry of Water & Power wherein they have tendered an apology for the misuse of their internal report "to fabricate a very negative story, giving the impression of a verdict against the excellent work done by the Ministry of Water & Power".
The statement further states that this letter was with reference to a news story published in a newspaper on 6th of March 2017, wherein the claims of the Ministry for improvement in the performance of Government owned power generation companies (GENCOs) was criticised as being incorrect and politically influenced. The news story claimed to authenticate its charge against the Ministry on the basis of an internal report of KfW, which was neither officialy released nor shared with the Ministry. The news story gave the impression of continuation of the past history of misgovernance and losses.
The Ministry in its rebuttal the next day had stated that: "The Ministry rejects the report as being done without due research and lacking in professional competence. We reiterate the claims in the advertisement and invite any analyst or reporter to interact with the Ministry and verify the claims in the advertisement of having achieved better fuel efficiency and of turning losses into profits.
"We take pride in the improved performance which has resulted in lowering the losses to the exchequer by reducing pilferages, better management and efficient use of the generating capacity by strict enforcement of merit order generation. It cannot be claimed that the multifarious problems, inefficiencies and malpractices in the power sector have disappeared overnight. All progress has to be incremental and should only be judged in comparison with the past," the statement added.
The history of the power sector is changing as the government owned generation companies are coming out of losses. The distribution companies have successfully reduced their AT&C losses by 5.2% again for the first time in the history of power sector. The transmission system, constrained to only 15,600 MWs, transmitted a record 17,540 MWs in 2016, when 85% of the total available capacity was dispatched.
Water and Power Ministry also claims that there is a turnaround in all spheres of power sector and we hope to sustain these achievements in future as well." KfW has acknowledged the facts of improvement in the power sector, as claimed by the Ministry, in these words: "In fact and for record: Being a long term supporter of Pakistan''s power sector development, we admire the fastest ever pace of progress achieved in recent years by your Ministry in power generation as well as in transmission and distribution system." As regards the "fabricated negative story", the letter said: "It is highly regrettable, and KfW apologise for that!"
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