Feb 21st

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 offices at Karsaz.

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Accusing the KWSB management of giving preference to some favourites,
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.

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By: NOMAN ARSHAD



This syndicated post originally appeared at on 21 February 2011