Up in smoke: CDA using generators to power offices

Civic agency spending millions on fuel.

ISLAMABAD:

Instead of clearing its outstanding electricity bills to restore its severed power connections, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has again resorted to using generators to power its offices. The exercise is costing the civic agency Rs1.5 million per day in fuel costs, it emerged on Thursday.

The power supply of the civic body’s main offices was severed by the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (ISECO) on April 29 after it failed to pay outstanding arrears to the tune of Rs2 billion.

IESCO sprang into action after Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali ordered power supplying companies across the country to go after defaulters.

A CDA official, asking not to be named, said that instead of clearing the bills, the CDA has rented three heavy generators to power its offices.

The official said that a 550KV generator has been hooked up to the CDA chairman’s office, a 350KV generator for the estate office, and a 225KV generator to supply electricity to other offices in the same block. The official said that the generators were used from 8am to 4pm to “ensure uninterrupted supply” to the offices, in the wake of the mercury level that has gone up in the last one week.

Officials in the CDA electrical and mechanical department told The Express Tribune that the 550KVA generator alone consumed 800 litres of diesel a day at a cost of around Rs88,000.

Similarly, the 350 KVA generator consumed 400 litres of diesel per day at a cost of Rs44,000, while the 225 KVA generator consumed 200 litres at a cost of Rs22,000.

The fuel was being purchased under a pre-existing agreement with Pakistan State Oil, the official confided.

The official said that IESCO only restored power to the Directorate of Municipal Administration after it paid Rs360 million.

IESCO also disconnected the civic agency’s power supply in 2012. At the time, the civic body owed ‘only’ Rs8.7 million, and went ahead with using generators for a month instead of clearing the dues.

A senior official of the same department while requested anonymity said that the CDA should clear dues instead of engaging generators, considering the authority was already facing a financial crunch.

“How can we afford this practice in the long run?”

An official in IESCO confirmed to The Express Tribune that the CDA has been a defaulter for many years. “Every time, they just pay a nominal amount and we restore the electricity, but this time they have exceeded the limit,” he added.

Repeated attempts were made to contact CDA Spokesperson Asim Khichi, but he was not available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2014.