ISLAMABAD: With the government completing half of its five-year constitutional term next month, all the state-run electricity distribution companies continue to be run on an ad-hoc basis and without regular chief executive officers.

There are 10 distribution companies under the administrative control of the ministry of water and power. All of them are headed by temporary CEOs to “look after the work of CEO”, according to a report submitted to parliament by the ministry last week.

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This is despite the fact that power sector reforms have been at the top of the government’s economic agenda and the PML-N’s election manifesto besides being at the centre of the country’s various covenants and agreements with international lenders like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Ministry says it’s looking for suitable candidates for the posts

Interestingly, the ministry did not mention the working experience of the temporary CEOs even though this was specifically asked for by the Senate.

The ministry said the appointment of regular CEOs as required by the Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules, 2013, was “under process” and the posts have been advertised.

An official explained that the term ‘under process’ had been used in view of changing circumstances and requirements because the current government came to power after the May 2013 elections. He said it enabled the ministry to have direct control over the distribution companies to implement orders from Islamabad.

The ministry said it was looking for candidates for the posts of CEO who should have professional degrees, minimum bachelors but preference would be given to people having masters degrees in business management, accounting, communication or engineering and a minimum of 15 years professional experience in the power distribution sector, 10 years of which should be in senior management positions.

It reported that the chief executive officer of the Government Holding Com­pany, Mohammad Imran, was also looking after the work on an “additional charge basis”.

It, however, said the heads of four generation companies were appointed by promotion “through proper channel” without explaining the term while the CEO of generation company at Jamshoro was promoted by the ministry on the recommendation of the board of directors.

The ministry said the boards of directors of distribution and generation companies were in order, but it had initiated the process of revamping all the boards of public sector power companies to “bring them further in conformity” with provisions of the Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules, 2013.

Interestingly, Finance Min­ister Ishaq Dar had reported to the IMF last month that the government had already transferred governance of distribution and generation companies and the NTDC to new boards of directors and managements as part of the energy sector reform programme.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2015