GEPCO seeks non-technical CEO

LAHORE:

The engineers of Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) are anticipating a bleak career outlook as they fear that they may have to serve a non-technical chief executive officer (CEO) of the distribution company.

According to the Gepco Engineers and Officers Association, the board of directors of the distribution company had introduced a unique formula for the recruitment of the company’s CEO.

“A plan has been made to technically dismiss all the experienced engineers in the power sector,” it said.

According to details, an advertisement for the post of CEO was published in various newspapers by the DG HR and Administration a couple of weeks ago.

In the ad, for the first time, the required academic qualification for the CEO of an electricity distribution company was Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and affiliation with a professional body of accountants as well as electrical engineering.

The candidates having irrelevant (non-engineering) degrees were also declared eligible for the technical top slot.

The age limit for the post was fixed at 60 years, whereas a total of 20 years’ experience along with 10 years’ experience in the private or public power sector was required.

As per the engineers, a significant doubt was created in terms of experience, under which any candidate must have at least five years of working experience at a senior management position in any private or public sector organisation.

At present, there is hardly an officer in Gepco or any other public sector distribution company, who has been working at a senior management position (Grade 20 or above) for five years.

Almost all the engineers in this sector have reached this position at the age of 56 to 58 years.

So, even at the age of 60, “it is logically impossible” for any officer to have the required experience of five years in the regular Grade 20.

Other distribution companies, ie Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) and Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco), require three years of experience in Grade 20 in their recruitment advertisements for the same position.

Consequently, there is a great deal of uneasiness among the engineers in the power sector regarding the termination of their careers and the appointment of an irrelevant experienced person at the important position of Gepco chief.

The engineer’s body General Secretary Imtiaz Ali held the view that the Gepco board, composed of non-stakeholder directors, had introduced the specific criteria to reward the people of their choice, with the aim of bringing the profitable national institution to the brink of collapse.

Gepco version

According to the Gepco spokesperson, “the board of directors is an authorised body and what they seek for the post of CEO is not out of this world.”

“The post of CEO is both technical and managerial and if the board is seeking an MBA for this slot, there must be a reason behind it,” he said, adding that there were a lot of things which needed to be streamlined at the managerial end too.

The spokesperson said that in terms of experience, the company had to set a criterion; “since it is a high slot post, the management thinks that a minimum five years of experience is good enough for this post”.

“What the concerned authorities have announced is for the betterment of the electric company,” the spokesperson added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2022.

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