Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) Board of Directors Chairman Mussadiq Malik said on Friday said that a scam of Rs 100.8 million in bill payments had been unearthed in Phool Nagar Division.
Addressing a press conference, he said that electricity bills worth Rs 100.8 million were fraudulently marked as paid from August 2013 to July 2015.
He said the fraud was perpetrated at Phool Nagar Revenue Office and a large number of bills from all over Lahore were marked as paid every month at Pattoki branch of a bank in 19 transactions.
The chairman said that the marking was done by improper usage of software provided by LESCO to the banks for automation of bill collection.
He said that two committees including a three member BOD committee probed the matter and unearthed the fraud after an eight-month enquiry.
LESCO officials had submitted overstated revenue records prompting the enquiry which showed that unauthorized transactions had been made and electricity consumers had been sent inflated detections bills (fines) to balance the final revenue sheet.
The spokesperson said that LESCO officials told the board members conducting the enquiry that irregularities in the financial were due to a mistake, and that it had been corrected. Malik said that despite claims of the LESCO officials regarding the embezzlement, board members were continuing with the probe.
Mussadiq Malik, who is also Special Assistant to Prime Minister, said that a case had been registered with the Federal Investigation Agency and revenue office staff was being investigated.
He said that the officials involved in fraud would soon be suspended and all the culprits would be taken to the task. A committee had also been constituted to ascertain as to why the record was not reconciled, he added.
He said that on Friday, annual audited accounts of the company were presented before the board for approval but it was rejected as Rs 1.5 billion were not reconciled. He also revealed that last year, LESCO officials had shown a fake profit of Rs 4.5 billion which was done by omitting the records of 1,200 pensioners.
Musadiq also said that a series of enquiries was being conducted in Kasur over the fraud and action would be taken against the wrongdoers upon conclusion of the investigation. He said that LESCO’s board members were trying to make the system transparent in order to avoid a repeat of the incident.
The chairman said that the LESCO BOD was committed to transform the institution and all steps would be taken for the purpose. He said that instead of hiding such scams, the BOD wanted to make it public so that people could be made custodians of the system.
He said that LESCO had managed to reduce its losses and its performance was getting better. A briefing would also be held in this regard soon and people would be apprised about steps and measures taken in this regard, he said.
INSTALLING NEW METERS:
Lahore Electric Supply Company as well as other power distribution companies have not replaced the old electricity meters with the new digital meters as the old meters, according to sources, have a manufacturing fault which can be manipulated by the LESCO and other company’s employees who can use them as an excuse to send detection bills to consumers with the claims that the meters are not running properly.
When contacted, the LESCO officials said that the reason why the new meters had not been installed was a lack of funds and manpower.
Sources said that during the summer this year, electricity consumers were issued huge detection bills, while the meter reading staff kept demanding bribes from the consumers. If their demands were not met, they would send huge detection bills to the consumers. Electric company employees were also under pressure to meet the targets set by the higher ups in order to cover the losses of the company.
Consumers have also claimed that meter readers often accuse them of having adjusted the meters at a slow point, and imposing detection bills on them, even though they have done nothing wrong.
LESCO officials, however, point to the manufacturing fault in the meters and say that this is responsible for the whole affair. They say that they have even ended their agreements with various companies as they failed to make meters without these glitches and errors. However, many of the old meters are still installed in LESCO’s jurisdiction.
Electricity supply companies in recent months have been accused of offering installments to the consumers instead of fixing the underlying problem as this enables them to over-charge the consumers and show inflated revenue sheets at the end of the fiscal year.
The BOD chairman said that a forensic audit of Phool Nagar bank branches had been launched and help of external auditors would also be sought in this regard.
Responding to a question, he said the bills declared fraudulent had been reversed in the system and it was also made part of the investigations as to why bills were reversed without authorisation.
