LESCO board chairman says company overstating profits

Says there is need to be more transparent, discusses ways to address concerns

LAHORE: Trouble for Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) does not seem to cease as the company has been embroiled in yet another controversy.

Lesco Board of Directors Chairman Musaddiq Malik has revealed that the company has been overstating its profits for the last two years by Rs14 billion and is now deliberately trying to hide these financial facts.

Malik said this while addressing a dinner hosted for 85 fresh engineers who have joined the company as sub-divisional officers.

According to Malik, a key solution to the company’s woes is bringing in more transparency. “In order to make the company more accountable and to educate consumers regarding load management and overbilling, we are taking some measures,” said Mailk. “From next week, Lesco will launch a website which will show real time data of what is happening in the company.”

Elaborating further, Malik said that with this facility, any consumer can see the exact line losses of its feeder just by entering his billing number. “The consumer can further check the actual collection in shape of billing and the load-shedding hours for the particular feeder.”

Malik added that there will be no human intervention while transmitting the data from 11kV smart meters to the main server room.

“We are hoping to launch this website soon after the BoD meeting scheduled on Monday.”

In addition, the Lesco board is coming up with another mechanism which will curb the issue of overbilling. “We have taken a commitment from the Lesco management that they will make sure to adjust a picture of the meter on every bill within 90 days.”

He further revealed that an additional messaging service will also be introduced where, within 24 hours from the day of billing, a SMS will be sent to the consumer.

“This mechanism will not leave any room for overbilling and corruption,” Malik said.

He, however, said that this cannot be done without a firm commitment from the new recruits in the company.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2015.

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