ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Tuesday expressed concerns over what it called a lack of transparency in the contracts of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and directed the concerned ministry for their forensic audit.

The Senate Functional Committee on Devolution held a meeting with Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur in the chair. The chairperson of the committee expressed concerns about the functioning of IPPs and the lack of transparency in their contracts.

She stated that the IPPs had caused significant hardships to the people and there is a need for their accountability. She directed the ministry concerned to conduct a forensic audit of the IPPs.

She also directed that details of standard contracts, a list of the percentage of capacity charges of power plants and timelines for their operations be provided to the committee.

Chairperson says IPPs have caused significant hardships to people and there is need for their accountability

The issue of IPPs is being highlighted by political parties and businessmen, urging the government to revisit the agreements signed with them in the interest of the public and industries to bring down the electricity tariffs.

Last month, Jamaat-i-Islami held a sit-in in Rawalpindi and also demanded the government revise its policy to provide relief to the citizens.

The government recently also announced that a new policy was being framed to deal with the issues of IPPs. Meanwhile, the committee unanimously decided to devolve the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) as required under the 18th constitutional amendment.

The members discussed the need for a mechanism to address surplus employment within the ministry, emphasising that the matter would be referred to the Establishment Division.

The Ministry of IPC was set up after the 18th Amendment for collaboration between provinces and the federal government. Besides doing coordination work, it was also given supervision of various departments, including the Pakistan Sports Board, National Internship Programme, Guns and Country Club, Department of Tourists Service and Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council.

Earlier, the committee also discussed the issue of sports federations.

The secretary of the ministry of IPC briefed the committee on the number of employees and the attached departments of the ministry as well as the details of the sports federations registered with the Pakistan Sports Board. He also provided an overview of the ministry’s human resources, including both sanctioned and currently working officers.

Additionally, the secretary reported that there were 44 registered national sports federations which were being provided grants by the ministry. The committee members also discussed matters related to the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The chairperson inquired about the accountability of the head of the federation and emphasised the importance of the inquiries’ outcomes. She proposed that inquiries be conducted across all federations.

Citing the example of Arshad Nadeem, she said 64pc of Pakistan’s population was under 30 years old, but this age group remains unrecognised despite significant budget allocations, yielding unsatisfactory results.

Meanwhile, the committee sought details of all federation chairpersons and the duration of their service as well as details of the Olympic committee’s chairpersons and their tenures.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2024