PAC takes note of ‘illegal recruitment’ in Pesco

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee has taken note of the alleged illegal recruitment of 5,487 employees in Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco).

Chairman Noor Alam Khan slammed the authorities for illegal recruitment and said that these were made against the law. He said only 1,300 people were recruited from Swat while the other districts of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa were ignored.

The Public Accounts Committee held its meeting on Wednesday under the chair of its Chairman Noor Alam Khan, in which the audit paragraphs related to the Power Division of the Ministry of Energy for the financial year 2019-20 were examined.

The Public Accounts Committee took notice of illegal recruitment in the Peshawar Electric Supply Corporation (Pesco) and has ordered the immediate dismissal of 5,487 recently recruited employees.

The committee has also ordered an investigation into the officers involved in the recruitment and sought a report within 15 days. PAC Chairman Noor Alam Khan said that 1,300 people had been recruited in Pesco from Swat district alone, but what the fault of other communities in Khyber Pukhtoonkhaw was.

“I wonder if these appointments were made to appease the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister,” he remarked. The PAC directed that the recruitment process in Pesco be restarted.

The committee was also directed to complete the process of filing vacant posts in all the DCs, with directions that advertisements for them should be published in the newspapers and the report should be presented to it.

The committee has also expressed grave concern and annoyance over the forced loadshedding in the country and said that the chief executives of the distribution companies are violating the Constitution as instead of taking action against the power theft, they switch off-grid stations for more than 20 days. Chairman Noor Alam Khan said action would be taken against the chief executives of the feeders involved in shutdowns. He also directed that the promotion of XENs and SDOs in these areas not be done. He directed the power division to provide its report to the PAC every month.

While examining the audit paragraph, the audit officials said that 563,700 electricity defaulters in Sukkur Electric Supply Company owe Rs 108.76 billion in arrears. The power division told the committee that among the defaulters, 80 percent of them belong to domestic consumers. The power division said that Rs 34.9 billion have been recovered till now, while Rs 73.82 billion are outstanding.