HYDERABAD: The Hyde­rabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) has failed everyone once again and refused to mend its ways to ensure effective service delivery to bona fide consumers.

It continues to take pride in issuing ‘detection’ bills to consumers in a bid to cover its line losses while its hierarchy is either working through ad hoc system or with officers that lack professional capacity to deliver.

Hesco knows that being a federal entity and under administrative control of Lahore or Islamabad, it is answerable to none in Sindh. As a major distribution company of the country’s power network, it fails to ensure upkeep of its system which has gone to the dogs.

Hyderabad and the districts hooked to Hesco’s system are not on the agenda of the sitting water and power minister as in the past two years, he has not paid a single visit. Situation in urban and rural areas is equally worse.

The utility’s network revolves around 132kV stations and 11kV transmission lines in the region, comprising 13 districts of Sindh. It has a worn-out system thus unable to cope with power consumption needs. Lack of required and timely maintenance is another reason. The company is not tired of informing media about prolonged “shutdowns” every now and then for the upkeep of system, yet claims of uninterrupted power supply elude consumers round the year.

Those aware of Hesco’s network claim that its grid stations are in bad shape and their protective system, that senses impending fault, does not respond thus leading to unending faults. None can independently verify these faults. The same goes for its 11kV conductors, mostly older ones and weak, which fail to keep the system going.

Hesco officials confide that transformers in localities are obsolete and need replacement. They cannot bear with loads. Thanks to power pilferage that comes handy with the connivance of Hesco’s staff whilst bona fide consumers get slapped with detection bills. Hesco’s board of directors (BoD) opposes this policy.

The power company is supposed to have important posts — chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO) and company’s secretary — filled through competitive process with BoD’s nod and in line with Corporate Governance Rules for public sector companies. It is perhaps only the CFO — Hina Talpur — to be hired from the private sector. Being able to control leakages, she tried to break certain nexus for which she had to face difficult situation within the company. Interestingly, the BoD has completed its tenure and it is working as interim setup “till further orders” for the past one year.

Likewise, the CEO continues to be a man from within Hesco’s hierarchy and that too on ad-hoc basis like outgoing chief Abdul Haq Memon, who failed to deliver and opted for leave preparatory to retirement (LPR) recently. He was heading Hesco on ‘look-after’ charge. His successor Abdul Razzaq, transferred from Islamabad, has suffered health issues and was hospitalised. So, practically Hesco is without a senior officer.

Mr Razzaq being a newcomer in Hesco was wrongly briefed by the staff about provision of dual power sources for 26 sewerage facilities of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa). He quoted the same information before the Sindh chief minister at an official briefing, but this proved to be wrong as none of these facilities worked when it rained heavily on Thursday.

The company has five posts of chief engineers, but three are vacant. Manzoor Kakepoto, confides a source, holds the important position of CE (planning and engineering), but hardly performs and a junior officer, Majid Jatoi, has been looking after his job for a few years. The posts of CEs (technical, commercial and planning) are yet to be properly filled. “Most senior-level officers lack capacity and vigour,” a BoD member remarks. The Hesco spokesman was unavailable to give his view since Thursday.

According to information shared by an official, 8,000 staffers are working against the 10,000 sanctioned strength. Population of Hyderabad alone is fast increasing with mushroom growth of housing schemes and societies on its outskirts. The number of power connections have increased in the city, especially in Qasimabad and Latifabad, as housing societies are cropping up there at a fast pace. But Hesco staff’s strength has proportionately not increased. An assessment shows that for 10,000 connections, a sub-division is to be created for handling consumers’ affairs adroitly.

Even the workers’ union is crying hoarse against fatal and non-fatal accidents in field. Required safety tools are not available in adequate numbers. In each sub-division, Hesco’s SDOs are relying on private persons to respond to consumers’ complaints and even for faults in transformers because of staff shortage.

In each sub-division, Hesco staff issues detection bills to consumers and it is largely done to cover line losses which are invariably 35pc to 40pc. Issuance of detection bills has shown an upward trend in the past one decade to make bona fide consumers run from pillar to post to get these bills settled. Hesco’s official position is that these ‘detections’ are issued to “power thieves”. But that is not the case. An anti-detection bills campaigner Asif Zahoori is pursuing such cases in Hyderabad with some zeal though with little success.

“When Hesco issues detections, the required quantum of bills is shown to the ministry as ‘receivables’. Once it is done, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) claims recovery of certain amount of tax on each bill. When the detection bills get adjusted, Hesco under FBR obligations pays the tax on those bills out of its own kitty. So it is a double whammy for Hesco itself. But it won’t give up”, comments a BoD member on condition of anonymity.

Luckily, Hyderabad has not yet received that much quantum of rainfall and anticipated urban flooding is not seen yet. Nobody knows what will happen if it rains 80mm

to 90mm in a day. Not only opposition but parliamentarians of the ruling parties rap Hesco. Is anyone in Lahore or Islamabad listening?

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2020

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