The Power Division was represented by Joint Secretary, (Power Finance), Zargham Eshaq Khan, NTDC's Wajahat Saeed Rana, Chief Law Officer, Hamza Randhawa, GM HR and Company Secretary. The mandate of the panel was to probe the matter of termination of the employment contact of Dr. Fiaz Ahmed Ch. Ex-Managing Director NTDC, who served the organization for less than a year.
The Power Division and NTDC team argued that while the former MD's CV was very strong yet he was incapable of dealing with the issues faced by NTDC especially evacuation of power from different power projects including coal-fired power plant at Port Qasim. The NTDC team further maintained that the sacked MD failed in strengthening coordination between the relevant internal sections due to which projects were delayed. Nepra in its show-cause notice issued in November 2016, four months after of his appointment had pointed out that over a dozen projects are behind schedule. The NTDC team did not mention how many such notices were issued prior to the appointment of MD and after his sacking.
The panel was informed that the sacked MD, who is now head of a department in Lahore University of Management (LUMS) was paid about Rs 20 million (Rs 1.7 million) for his remaining period as per the contract. He was pointed MD on July 15, 2016 and removed from service on July 7, 2017. In reply to a question NTDC's Wajahat Saeed Rana said that work on projects was in progress but there was a delay due to lack of coordination between different wings of NTDC.
The panel was also informed that in case of delay in evacuation of power from Port Qasim project, NTDC had to pay $ 0.7 million per month. However, the NTDC completed the project within schedule with Zafar Abbas as acting Managing Director. The panel chief was of the view that removal of former Managing Director NTDC was a serious matter and the committee would probe it in detail by taking into consideration all aspects. Senator Agha Shahzaib, however, deplored the performance of the NTDC.
Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani has sought details of the audited accounts of NTDC, show cause notices by Nepra, minutes of board meetings in which it expressed its frustration for delay in projects, system failures and other matters related to stability of the system. He said that NTDC is an important institution and has crucial role in strengthening transmission, distribution and power regulatory mechanisms.
He said power losses, unprecedented load shedding and malfunction of the system have made the lives of the people of Baluchistan miserable. "There is 12-14 hour load shedding in different areas of Baluchistan province adding to the hardships of the people and no tangible steps have been taken to enhance capacity of the existing system," Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani said.
He also expressed his anguish over the delay in provision of the relevant information and documents. However Zargham Eshaq Khan apologized for delay in provision of working papers.
NTDC's Chief Law Officer stated that Board recommended removal of MD. He said, during the tenure of sacked MD, there was a total collapse of finances and the organization faced penalties as statutory audit of three years had not been conducted. However, now this has been completed. However, NTDC officials were visibly disturbed when the panel chief said that the audit was the responsibility of Chief Financial Officer (CFO), not the Managing Director.
Joint secretary Power Division Zargham Khan said that 10700 MW of electricity was added to the national grid during 2013 to 2018 but transmission lines were not available to evacuate additional electricity. He said that 22000 MW of electricity was available but transmission system was able to transfer only 19800 MW of electricity. He said that parallel action was required to lay transmission line but no proper planning was done in this regard. He said that Power Division was fully aware of delay in transmission line projects and had communicated to the then MD NTDC to complete the projects in time. The government hopes to ensure increased supply of electricity to the consumers in the recent summer season as 90 per cent constraints in transmitting electricity have been addressed after removing previous managing director National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).
Power Division informed that previous managing director (MD) failed to take measures to make proper planning for stability of transmission system to avoid blackouts and execute transmission line projects according to timelines. He said that delay in transmission line projects was leading to threat of multimillion dollars penalty on account of capacity payments to be charged by power plants
The sub-committee was briefed in detail about the appointment procedure, composition of the Board of Directors along with reasons for the appointment of former Managing Director NTDC. The meeting was attended by senior officials of the ministry, NTDC and others.
