KOHAT, June 3: The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has a total of Rs30.21 million outstanding dues not paid by government departments of Kohat and Karak till April 2007, Dawn has learnt.

The main defaulter was the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) Kohat with a total recoverable amount of Rs20.47 million. The TMA Lachi comes next with Rs3.36 million.

Both the TMAs failed to clear their dues on the plea that they had no money to even pay salaries of their regular employees and about 100 staff members were being readjusted by different government departments.

At present, a case of misappropriation of Rs20 million by a former Tehsil Municipal Officer (TMO) was in the National Accountability Court and three other cases of corruption involving Rs30 million were under process for recovery from another TMO and an accountant.

Last year, when the TMA cleared the Pesco bills, its staff remained unpaid for three months until the time when the district government had come to its rescue as had had happened in 2005 when the bills were cleared by the provincial government through a special grant.

The other defaulters include railways, post-offices, Frontier Constabulary, Frontier Region administration, Pesco’s local office, public health engineering, police, education, courts, grid station, Kohat Cantonment Board, Punjab police and other departments.