Islamabad July 27,
2013: PPP has reiterated its call for making public details of payments of Rs
480 billion made to settle the circular debt saying that information merely
about the amount paid to each power
producer was
meaningless unless it is also accompanied with critical
information about the
oil supplied, the power produced and the
capacity utilized by
each power producer.
Following public
criticism the Finance Ministry announced on July 23 that “details of payments
of Rs. 480 billion to settle the circular debt of Rs. 503 billion are now
available on the official site of the ministry”.
“The figures of
payments made to each producer do not allay suspicion that billions have been
paid to power producers against electricity that was never produced and to oil
suppliers against shipments that were never made”, said Senator Farhatullah
Babar in a statement issued
from the Party’s
media office today
Doubts linger because
payments have been made to the private power producers and other entities in
the energy sector without carrying out third party pre-audit by independent
technical and professional
accounting bodies, he
said and demanded that all facts be laid bare.
The reports of over
50 billion rupees of unjustified overpayments together with the reports of
internal differences of opinion within the Finance Ministry are disturbing that
calls for a thorough probe, he said.
He also referred to
the claim that the electric power company Pepco
provided reconciled
accounts to the water and power ministry which then forwarded it to the finance
ministry apparently to allay suspicions of any underhand deal.
He said that even if
this procedure had been adopted it was a faulty
procedure without
carrying out independent financial and technical audit.
Allowing the private
producers of electricity and the powerpurchaser
to sit together
behind closed doors and decide among them an issue for which the price is
ultimately paid by the general public looks like ‘muk-muka’. An ordinary
citizen should not be blamed if he sees in it an underhand deal between vested
interests at public expense, he said.
He said that
according to media reports the Asian Development Bank insisted and succeeded in
making the audit of payments to power producers as part of the recent agreement
with the IMF. If these reports are correct it is all the more necessary that
the circular debt payments are subjected to a comprehensive third party audit
by professional financial and technical auditors, he said.
He said that the 18th
Amendment had specifically inserted Article 19-A in the Constitution that
states that every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in
all matters of public
importance. Complete
information pertaining to the payments made to private power producers is a
matter great public importance and must be made public. Doubts will linger as
long as there is secrecy surrounding it, he said.
Farhatullah Babar
said that reports about the banks keeping open on
the last Saturday of
June despite weekly holiday in order to make the payments before the close of
the last financial year on June 30 also raised questions.
He said that some
power producers were also the unofficial advisors on energy who were interested
only in the payment of unpaid bills instead of structural reforms.
The government has
not been able to address critical issues involving
the gap between the
cost power generation and sale, losses due to
theft and in transmission
and distribution as is evident from its
inability to evolve
consensus in the meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) Tuesday.
As a result the
circular debt will re-emerge to haunt the nation of
180 million people
even as a few would have made hay as the sun shone brightly over their heads,
he said.
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