Who is supposed to pay the electricity bills racked up by the Rangers at the hostels, colleges and universities they occupy across Sindh, asked the government’s accounting watchdog on Thursday.
“We want to know whether the finance and home departments are the only ones responsible for it or do the Rangers have to pay?” said Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Jam Tamachi Unar. “The Rangers have taken over many hostels, colleges and universities in Sindh but they do not bother to pay the utility bills.” He was looking at the audits of the labour department for the years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 at the Sindh Assembly building. These papers were related to the Rangers’ accounts because they occupy buildings belonging to the labour department.
He directed the committee’s secretary to inform the chief minister and the chief secretary about the problem and he urged the finance department to clarify which department is responsible for paying these bills. The labour department received a light pat on the back for paying Rs2 million in unpaid bills. In one instance, a labour department technical training centre used by the Rangers has one meter, which measures the electricity supplied to several buildings, including residential quarters, bungalows, hostels and flats, said Audit Director-General Najmul Saqib Siddiqi. Several of these housing facilities are occupied by the Rangers, who refuse to pay up.
The Sindh government allocates a separate budget for the Rangers, said DG Siddiqui, adding that the personnel should pay their electricity bills from this money.
The labour secretary said that 90 per cent of the electricity is used by the training centre, which has 400 students studying 13 technical trades. A total amount of Rs0.85 million needs to be paid, half of which the Rangers owe. The department has recovered Rs378,409 from its staff but the Rangers personnel have to clear their share of Rs480,000. When the training centre’s principal asked the paramilitary forces’ commandant to pay their share, he replied, “the Sindh government has to pay the amount”.
Unar said that no amount owed the government should be left unpaid without sufficient reason.
The secretary added that the department has requested KESC to install separate meters for the centre, hostel and residential quarters.
The PAC chairman said Wapda is issuing extra bills in Sindh and this can be gauged by the fact that right now, according to the billing, 22 districts of Sindh (not including Karachi) are consuming more electricity than the whole of the Punjab. Keeping in mind that there are more industries and people in the Punjab, this is nearly impossible.
He said that they have raised the issue at different levels, but in vain. “There should be a commission to monitor this,” he said.
These complaints are not new and earlier, a commission was formed during the Nawaz Sharif government. This commission managed to recover Rs7 billion to Rs8 billion and returned this amount to consumers. However, it was disbanded soon after.
The law department was taken to task for Rs70 million, which were not accounted for on paper. The law secretary, Ghulam Nabi Shah, said they were low on staff and needed the help of the high court staff to wrap up the records, but the high court staff was not cooperating. Shah asked for a week to prepare the documents. Unar asked the PAC secretary to write the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to ensure the courts cooperated with the law department
Meanwhile, the industries department had minor discrepancies worth Rs42,000 given out as transport allowance to retired employees, who had just been hired as consultants and were thus not entitled to this money.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2011.
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