KARACHI: Financially-crippled KWSB to incur Rs2bn on salaries
By Azizullah Sharif
KARACHI, March 16: With an induction of about 4,900 people, the number of employees in the financially-crippled Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has gone up to 12,900 within a month, which will raise its annual salary bill from the existing Rs1.5 billion to Rs2 billion.
The water board, which has recently employed 4,900 persons in various grades starting from BPS-2 to BPS-17, will now incur an additional amount of Rs500 million on their salaries annually.
Sources in the KWSB said that it was amazing to note that the utility despite being overstaffed (eight employees per 1,000 consumers) inducted thousands of people more though it still remained technically understaffed and ill-equipped.
They said that the heavy induction was made at a time when the water board’s annual demand stood at Rs5 billion with major heads as energy charges (Rs1.6 billion to Rs1.8 billion), routine operations and maintenance (Rs1.5b), and overhead and establishment expenses (Rs2b), while its revenue remained merely Rs2 billion, indicating a deficit of Rs3 billion per annum.
Facing an annual deficit of Rs3 billion, the KWSB is unable to meet the operation and maintenance cost of its outdated infrastructure.
Referring to the ongoing projects and a recently completed one, sources said that all these projects were carried out with the funds provided under the Tameer-i-Karachi Programme. The KWSB’s revenue department was required to generate Rs4.5 billion yearly from its 1.5 million consumers, including 6,000 industrial and bulk consumers, but it was hardly collecting Rs2 billion under the head of water and sewerage charges, sources said. Even this amount was not being made part of the utility’s finances as 25 per cent of it was disbursed among 187 union councils and 18 town municipal administrations for undertaking water and sewerage-related works in their jurisdictions, they added.
Apart from this, the KWSB owes Rs4 billion to the Karachi Electric Supply Company under the head of electricity charges and the amount has been accumulating for the last four years. The KWSB insists that it will be able to clear all power dues if it succeeds in recovering its Rs5 billion outstanding against various public sector organisations and offices, particularly those belonging to federal ministries.
Citing out-of-turn promotions as another reason for its unsatisfactory performance, the sources said that it was being practised in almost every department, including the engineering section where a number of junior engineers had been made executive and superintending engineers by giving them out-of-turn promotions.
