ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: The International Monetary Fund has expressed its concern over the continued operational losses of the Water and Power Development Authority and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation.

“Our review mission which recently visited Pakistan had expressed its concern over Wapda and KESC’s operational losses and called upon the government to take the issue seriously,” said Mr Henri Ghesquiere, Senior Resident Representative of the IMF in Islamabad.

Talking to Dawn here on Tuesday, he said the losses of both the public sector enterprizes were needed to be restricted so that they could be prepared for their ultimate privatization. Under these circumstances, he pointed out, there could not be any meaningful privatization of these loss-making entities. “How can you think of any privatization without improving their financial health,” he asked.

He said it was increasingly difficult for the government to continue making up the losses of Wapda and KESC from various budgetary provisions.

The government officials concerned, when contacted, maintained that because public and private consumers were not paying their bills to Wapda and KESC, they had not been able to adequately service obligations to fuel suppliers and loan creditors.

According to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, power sector of Pakistan has been affected by institutional and organizational weaknesses.

The organisations of Wapda and KESC have degenerated into unwieldy, over-centralized, and multi-layered bureaucracies, dominated by political expediency, where efficiency and quality of service continue to decline.

The Wapda’s scope has become over-extended, as it has responsibilities for water and irrigation, developing the private power programme and planning and operating the power system.

Even with 110,000 employees in the Wapda and about 12,200 in the KESC, responsiveness to customers left much to be desired. Lack of financial and commercial skills have become major obstacles to the accountability, quick decision-making, and commercial orientation needed to deal with power producing companies.