November 19, 2007	Monday	Ziqa’ad 08, 1428

KHANEWAL, Nov 18: The Multan Electric Company’s army intelligence team has found a number of corruption cases in electricity transformers’ sale, repair and replacement committed by Water and Power Development Authority’s (Wadpa) officials, Dawn has learnt.

Sources said intelligence officials visited Kabirwala on the complaint of Rana Wahid on Nov 5 in an official jeep (SLH-292). The team visited a shop of Shahbaz and seized the cover of a 50kv transformer from there. Shahbaz fled while the team handed over the transformer to the accompanying Wapda officials.

The transformer was released from a Wapda store to be installed at Mauza Alipur two or three months ago. But an old transformer was installed there.

The team visited Sultanabad on Makhdoompur Road where the Wapda officials had replaced a 15kv transformer with a 25kv transformer. The 25kv transformer was previously installed at a tube well at Mauza Allabad.

At Adda Kot Bahadur, the officials installed a transformer at a tower of a cellular company, which had been issued from the store for Mauza Jawahrikhu Pandiwala. But in Pandiwala, the officials placed a 50kv transformer after receiving bribe from the residents. The transformer which was issued for the tower was installed at a tube well of Iqbal and Shafiq. Iqbal and Shafiq say they paid Rs67,000 to Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Khalid Manzoor, Line Superintendent Asif Shah and driver Muhammad Akhtar to get the transformer installed at their tube well.

The officials, according to Iqbal and Shafiq, advised them to lodge a theft report of their transformer. They lodged the complaint with the Saddar police station, Kabirwala, stating that their transformer had been stolen.

In Bilawalpur, the Wapda officials sold central coil of a 100kv transformer. In Adda-12 Meel, the Wapda officials installed a 100kv transformer removing a 50kv transformer installed there. The residents said they had paid money to the Wapda officials for the replacement for a proper voltage.

The team also found wrong transformers installed or removed at Rafiq Flour Plant and Bilawalpur.

The team along with Wapda metering and testing officials and the Khanewal executive engineer (XEN) visited Mauza Alipur and saw a 50kv transformer there which had a bullet mark. The team learnt SDO Manzoor had already got issued a transformer from the official store for this place, but had sold it. The SDO got repaired the damaged transformer and supplied power to the area through it. The newly issued transformer for Alipur was installed in Multan.

The team learnt that during the shifting, transferring, repairing and selling of transformers, the officials used Wapda van (KWC-1357).

Wapda intelligence inspector Yaseen Karlo said they were getting the record of transformers to ascertain the facts. He said unless he checked the whole record, it was difficult to say about Wapda officials’ involvement in these cases.

SDO Khalid Manzoor said the intelligence team had got record regarding Rafiq Flour Shop’s connection from him. He said if a transformer was burnt anywhere, the department had to restore power supply immediately. In such a situation, they got repaired faulty transformers from private shops, which was illegal.

XEN Sarfraz called intelligence team’s visits a routine matter. “They have yet to point out any problematic situation in Kabirwala,” he said.

Sources say more investigation into the alleged corruption will now be carried by a Monitoring and Surveillance (M & S) team from the Wapda House, Lahore.