Thousands of employees of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) have not yet been paid their  salaries in time, which is causing resentment among them besides indicating that the utility is fast moving towards bankruptcy.The cash-strapped Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has received a financial blow when one of its Chief Engineer in the Bulk water Supply department has spend millions of Rupees on the renovation of its officesat Karsaz.

Accusing the KWSB management of giving preference to some favourites,Mr.Najm-e-Alam Siddiqui, it is learnt that the KWSB is  nowadays facing a serious financial crisis because of a number of factors which included its dwindling revenue on account of water and sewerage charges, recruitment of employees on a mass scale over the past four years whereby their strength had been increased from 8,000 to 16,000, the practice of granting extension in service to the retiring personnel in violation of a Sindh Cabinet decision and a huge amount of over Rs11 billion electricity charges which the utility had been clearing in monthly instalments.

The poor financial position of the KWSB could be gauged from the fact that no amount was left with it for carrying out maintenance of its vital installations and plugging of leakages of major pipelines after making part payment to the KESC under the head of electricity charges, disbursement of salaries among 16,000 employees and settling contractors` bills often on priority basis, they said.

Even for repairing minor leakages of a locality the KWSB compelled residents of the area to contribute the amount required for plugging such repairs, they added. But at the same time some of the engineers are spending million os of government exchequer on their personal needs. The recent example of renovating offices of the Chief Engineer (Bulk Supply)is a gross violation of all rules and regulations. The contract awarded to a firm without fulfilling any legal formalities  at an exorbitant prices just to please one of the Chief Engineer whose reputation is not very good in the KWSB.

We as concerned employees of KWSB would like to request the newly appointed Managing Director to immediately stop this spending in the name of  office renovation which is a wasteful expenditure, as most of the installations  of KWSB are not in good shape and needs urgent repair and therefore these  funds could be diverted for works which are needed for smooth functioning of pumping stations and uninterrupted water supply to the general public

This syndicated post originally appeared at on 21 January 2011