ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Power expressed serious concerns on Wednesday regarding the alleged use of derogatory tone by the board of directors (BoD) of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) in a report.

The committee, chaired by Senator Saifullah Abro, also expressed shock when it was told that the record of a contract of another government-owned entity — the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) — under scrutiny had been completely gutted.

However, the Senate panel appreciated the power division for launching a campaign against electricity theft that has helped recover over Rs25 billion so far.

The committee decided to summon the entire NTDC board in its next meeting and ordered the power division to appoint an inquiry committee to investigate the burning of Nespak’s record.

Standing Committee on Power also raises concerns over Nespak’s lost records

As the matter of implementation of the committee’s recommendation to produce the recording of the NTDC’s procurement committee in the case of mis-procurement of a 765kV double-circuit transmission line from Dasu Hydropower Station to Islamabad, a power division official expressed inability to produce the recording.

He said the audio recording of the procurement committee meeting could not be obtained as the chairman of NTDC’s board had resigned and members of the board had advised the company secretary to take legal opinion on it.

The Senate committee was informed that a report prepared by the NTDC board was also presented to the government, stating that a few errors and discrepancies had been found in the project, but they were not enough to declare the entire tender process as a mis-procurement.

The senators expressed reservations on the contents of the report, which had also questioned the authority of the Senate panel to pass directions to the NTDC board.

The senators believed that the NTDC directors had used derogatory language against the Senate panel members, which was a breach of the privilege of the committee.

Therefore, the committee unanimously concluded that the NTDC board had breached the privilege of the Senate and hence decided to submit the matter to the Senate chairman for referring the matter to the Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges.

The Senate’s Standing Committee on Power also summoned the NTDC board to explain its position regarding the report and non-implementation of the committee’s recommendations in the next meeting. However, the NTDC board is unlikely to turn up to the meeting.

While taking briefing from the Nespak managing director on the Asian Development Bank-funded project ACSR (Aluminium Conductors Steel Reinforced) Bunting Conductor LoT-II A, Senator Abro raised objections and reminded that the Senate panel had issued directives in its previous meeting for providing the entire correspondence of the project with the NTDC and the ADB.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2023