Parliamentarians to take up IESCO scam of millions of rupees with AGP Islamabad power supply company unable to provide relief to victims of bogus bills.

Byline: Zubair Qureshi

Senate Standing Committee on Power is taking up Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO) scam of bogus bills worth millions of rupees with the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) in its upcoming meeting to ascertain exactly who have been behind fleecing power customers through bogus bills and fake stamps for the last many years.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is currently probing the scam whose volume can be judged with the fact that over Rs40 million were charged from electricity customers through fake-stamped electricity bills on a single day.

The practice continued for years until the FIA started probe and found out that not only big firms but ordinary customers and low paid income groups were also fleeced by the company officials in connivance with some bank employees and even the customers. In a recent parliamentary meeting the members took the officers of the IESCO to task over embezzlement of millions of rupees through collection of bogus bills from power consumers.

According to details, the billing department of Iesco continued to fleece consumers over the past four years, but neither the company management nor the audit firm could detect the scam.

Iesco CEO Shahid Iqbal told the Senate Standing Committee that the scam had been going on unchecked for the past four years.

'We have terminated officers of the Finance Department (involved in the scandal),' he said. He also revealed that power consumers were also involved in the fraud as they were depositing the bills in the Revenue Office-I with 30pc discount. The head of Circle-I Revenue Office was found involved in the fraud. Sources in FIA told Pakistan Observer not only IESCO but a couple of banks' employees were also reportedly involved in this mega scandal whose tentacles were linked with some high-ups in both the departments.

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