LWMC’s future role hangs in the balance

CEO says privatisation, self-management options will be reviewed

LAHORE:

The option of privatising the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) remains on the cards despite the provision of resources and manpower by the government to make it self-sufficient.

The company had accumulated a debt of about Rs100 billion after awarding contracts of its operations to foreign companies earlier and some officials fear that contracting it out to a national or multinational firm might increase the operational cost as compared to operating on its own.

LWMC Chief Executive Officer Rafia Haider told The Express Tribune that documents are being prepared about the alternatives of privatising the company or running it independently.

She said the situation regarding the future of the company would be clarified soon.

Whatever policy the Punjab government would make regarding the status of the LWMC, including opting for self-management or privatization, would be implemented, she said.

The CEO said the company had started carrying out the city cleanliness operation itself after terminating the contracts with foreign firms and its performance was gradually improving.

It is the responsibility of the LWMC to collect the city’s garbage and dispose it of.

Till 2003-04, the metropolitan corporation oversaw all the cleaning work across the city and had an annual budget of Rs2.5 billion. The government took over the responsibility from the metropolitan corporation and awarded contracts to the foreign companies at $19 per tonne. These companies were entrusted with the responsibility of cleaning and garbage collection of 247 union councils (UCs) of Lahore.

The garbage collection process in the rural UCs was run by the company itself.

The foreign companies used to charge the expenses of road washing separately. Thus, the expenditure increased from Rs2.5 billion to Rs12 billion and by now to up to Rs15 billion annually.

The LWMC used to take good loans from the Punjab government for the operations. The amount of loan has exceeded Rs100 billion and it is still on the rise. According to sources in the LWMC, there is no mechanism for the loan refund.

The LWMC ended the contract with foreign companies because it was expensive and started running the sanitation work itself.

On the eve of Eidul Azha, former chief minister Hamza Shehbaz Sharif praised the company’s performance, but instead of considering a proposal to give it the status of an authority, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government once again decided to grant the cleaning work’s contract to a Turkish company. Work on the proposal was reportedly almost completed but the government was toppled.

Afterwards, Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi also received a briefing from the LWMC management.

He was reportedly advised to outsource the service of the company.

A meeting was held among the Punjab chief secretary, local government secretary and officers of the LWMC and other relevant departments, as a result of which the paper work on the proposals has been started.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2022.