Taskforce starts operation in PDB to dig up corruption

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An army taskforce led by Col Zahid Siddiqui started operation in the Power Development Board (PDB) domain Thursday to unearth corruption and other irregularities, reports UNB.brOfficial sources said the taskforce team held a meeting with senior PDB officials in its boardroom to have an overview of the operations and responsibilities of the one of the largest state-owned enterprises (SOEs) of the country, before getting down to the task of flushing out corruption suspects. PDB Chairman Shawkat Ali and other top officials were present at the meeting.brSources said the taskforce told Thursday's meeting that the government has assigned the team to help the PDB emerge as a vibrant and dynamic organisation in the country.brThey also urged the officials to bring any sort of corruption, irregularities or problems to their knowledge so that they can help address the shortcomings.brSystem-planning department of the PDB made a presentation on the overall activities of the power sector's biggest entity.brSources said the taskforce team will set up its office at the PDB headquarters and formally start functioning from Sunday as part of the purge against institutional corruption under the overall drive against serious crime and corruption. The team will work in all the PDB offices across the country through splitting into several branches.brEarlier, the Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources issued an order to the PDB management to cooperate with the taskforce in performing its duties.brAmong the SOEs, the PDB is deemed to be one of the most inefficient organisations in the country, having a system loss of about 30 per cent in the power-distribution business. brThe term 'system loss' is a euphemism for electricity theft, and it was once said to have been rampant. It is also believed that a huge pilferage is a regular phenomenon in the power plants' maintenance and rehabilitation business.