THE country has been facing severe power crisis because almost all power-generating plants in the public sector are closed owing to shortage of furnace oil and lack of timely maintenance. Currently, the shortage of electricity is to the tune of 3,000MW due to which loadshedding is being carried out for five to six hours daily throughout the country.

However, practically many feeders remain shut for more than 12 hours in rural areas, causing hardship to domestic, commercial, agricultural and industrial consumers in sweltering heat. Rampant corruption, maladministration, bad governance, political interference and unfair labour practices in the distribution companies (Discos) are the main reasons for this crisis. Consequently, Discos, too, suffer huge financial losses.

The present board of directors (BoD) of Discos have miserably failed to check these practices, maladministration and lack of accountability, which could have brought some improvement in the system and helped us overcome the present crisis.

The relevant ministry had called applications a while ago from candidates having professional competence, experience and skills in areas such as engineering, finance, human resource management, corporate and company laws and taxation through public advertisement.

But discarding the earlier advertisement, boards were formed on political consideration by inducting the services of non-professionals having no practical experience and knowledge of the assigned work. Ironically, members of one board were made simultaneously members of three to four other boards of Discos, too, giving undue favour.

Today, we are paying dearly for such blatant misuse of power and rampant corruption. These members of the boards miserably failed to check increasing line losses worth billions of rupees on a monthly basis, decreasing recovery.

They did not take any action against anyone on account of inefficiency and dereliction of duties and ignored illegal adjustments of detection bills worth millions of rupees monthly in almost all Discos.

The boards in gross violation of rules, increased their own fees and conducted regular meetings beyond the prescribed limit mentioned in Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules, 2013, causing huge financial losses to the sinking companies. No prompt action and decisions were made by the boards to improve the financial health of the Discos for obvious reasons.

This needs a high-level enquiry into the affairs of companies, particularly those operating in south and north regions, to detect irregularities carried out by boards in gross violation of the rules.

I would suggest to the ministry concerned to dissolve all boards of Discos, and professionals having integrity and reputation should be included in the new boards on the basis of merit without any political consideration through competitive process. This should be done to revive the power sector which otherwise is a burden on national economy as subsidies of billions of rupees are regularly being paid to the Discos from the exchequer and even then they are not surviving.

Besides, stern action should be initiated against all corrupt officials involved in power theft for making financial gains and are occupying key positions on the basis of political affiliations. All chief executive officers of the said companies should be appointed on merit through competitive process.

Only efficient boards and result-oriented management of the companies can steer the power sector out of the current crisis, or the consumers will face an even worse power crisis. If that happens, the country’s industrial and agriculture sectors will suffer even more.

Tariq Majeed Memon
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2022