Holds entire management responsible for systematic stealing. STOCK IMAGE
LAHORE: The board of directors of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) has unearthed fresh evidence that highlights the root causes of electricity theft in the company.
It has held the entire management responsible for what it terms systematic electricity theft that has robbed the company and its consumers of billions of rupees.
The management has also been accused of resisting implementation of the board’s orders, by not giving appropriate punishment to the officials found most corrupt in the system.
“Based on customer data, the board of directors has found similar systematic irregularities in all 160 sub-divisions and this cannot be done without the help of top as well as middle and lower managerial and operational staff,” said a Lesco board member.
At present, the board was trying to initiate and accountability process within the company but the management was hindering all its efforts, he added.
Manipulation in billing was apparent, but in an effort to keep the process covert, the management did not overbill the same feeder repeatedly, since this would have invited suspicion from the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of a particular division.
After analysing the data, the board concluded that the feeder, which was overbilled in any month of the year, was billed lower in the same month of previous year and vice versa. This was aimed at averting complaints and protests from the consumers.
The board member said in either case the linesman and lines superintendent took bribes and in the case of consumers who were billed lower, the linesman took money for fixing the meters. In the case of overbilling too, they took some money to correct the bill.
The board of directors also discovered a few months ago that the management was diverting electricity quota of one feeder to another to make things more complicated.
The board had been continuously warning the management and had also transferred few officials from operational duties, said the source.
The board made a list of 160 SDOs ranging from the most to least corrupt. Of these, it picked the top 15 and asked the management to remove any five of them from operational duties.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2015.
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