Gepco: ‘You’ll be held responsible for following orders’

GUJRANWALA: A circular issued by the Gujranwala Electric Power Company chief executive officer last week has left his subordinates in a fix. 

CEO Mehboob Alam issued a general letter to the staff on instructing his subordinates to abide-by all orders issued by him. Further on, in the letter, the CEO said that the staff must follow only those orders which were lawful. They would be responsible for following any orders, he issued, in violation of law.

The letter titled, ‘Compliance to the orders of the Gepco CEO’, reads: “as the CEO of the company, I will pass different orders in writing as well as through telephone ...some orders may have impression of deviation from the rules and regulations and the company’s policy ... they must be referred back to me stating the violation ...In case any officer complies with any illegal order, he/she will be responsible for the consequences.”

The letter is addressed to chief engineers, the finance director, the human resources director, the administration director, the sub-engineers and managers.

A Gepco officer, not wishing to be named, told The Express Tribune: “It was very strange. If a CEO is not aware of what is legal and what’s not, how can we be expected to know?”

Gepco Chief Spokesman Rana Jahangir refused to comment on the letter.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2013.