Ministry report on RPPs full of fiction: SC

CJ says ADB points out irregu­lariti­es in their establ­ishmen­t.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court observed on Tuesday that a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) pinpointed several irregularities in the setting up of the Rental Power Projects (RPPs).

A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, is currently hearing a suo motu case pertaining to reports on irregularities in the affairs of the RPPs.

The court had issued notices to the Ministry of Water and Power, Nepra and the management of all the power plants for ensuring transparency in the award and implementation of their agreements.

On Tuesday, the chief justice asked the counsel for the water and power ministry to state why Independent Power Producers (IPPs) were ignored to meet the electricity shortfall.

He was referring to an argument raised earlier before the court that the ministry could have cleared IPP payments instead of deciding to set up RPPs to meet the power shortage.

The ministry’s counsel, Khwaja Tariq Rahim, said the plan was to bind the IPPs with 14 new RPPs to do away with the electricity shortfall quickly.

The chief justice asked the counsel to state how much electricity was being produced by the IPPs vis-à-vis their generation capacity. The counsel said there were a total of 27 IPPs, which were capable of producing 6,770 megawatts of electricity.

However, the dependable power generation measured up to 6,505 megawatts owing to different variables, he said. At present, the counsel added, the IPPs are capable of producing 500 megawatts of electricity.

The chief justice observed that the water and power ministry’s report on RPPs was “full of fiction” and asked the counsel to conclude his arguments today (Wednesday) before tea break.

The chief justice had already stated that the RPPs were void of any policy, and that the mobilisation advance had been raised in violation of the agreement from seven to 14 per cent.

Former Water and Power Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, who became a petitioner in the case, had informed the court that the ministry was responsible for gross irregularities in the setting up of the RPPs.

He had said the ministry had misled the cabinet by giving it ‘erroneous data’ on setting up the RPPs.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2011.