Rishikesh Pokharel, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives, was quick to recommend action against Managing Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Kulman Ghising. But, there has been a delay in the committee to review the documents provided by the NEA to support the investigation into disputes over dedicated feeders and trunk line arrears.
Earlier on August 8, the NEA submitted to PAC the Time of Day (TOD) metre data and other documents sought by the committee. The documents also included log books, billing ledgers in ampere, bills showing details of exemption given to industrialists, and decisions on 90 dismissed cases as evidence that industries got electricity supply through designated feeders and trunk lines during and after the load-shedding period.
However, Pokharel and lawmakers of the CPN-UML attempted to recommend action against Ghising, alleging that he did not try to collect the dues, without reviewing the documents.
The plan to launch a probe against Ghising through the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Revenue Investigation Department (RID), and Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police failed after non-cooperation from the ruling coalition partner Nepali Congress and strong resistance from opposition parties.
The parliamentary committee’s recommendation could have provided the government with a pretext to remove Ghising, which seems to have been halted for the moment.
When the PAC requested TOD metre data in July-end, there was no agenda to take action against the NEA leadership. But, after the NEA submitted the data and a vehicle-load of documents, the UML lawmakers, including Pokharel, argued that action should be taken against authority’s leadership alleging it failed to collect around Rs 22 billion in arrears.
Even lawmakers and staff at the committee accept that the study of documents has yet to pick up pace after a month since NEA provided it.
Though Pokharel claimed that necessary documents were being reviewed, he did not specify, with the NBA, the documents under examination.
“I am not that aware as the committee’s secretariat is carrying out the study,” Pokharel said.
Though the committee had said it would discuss the TOD metre data in its next meeting, the study of the documents is yet to complete.
Pokharel claimed that the issue has arisen because NEA sent unnecessary documents.
“The committee had only asked for TOD metre data and reports from Bhakta Bahadur Pun and Manoj Mishra, but the NEA sent additional documents which are not required,” Pokharel siad.
But, Ghising argued that the additional documents were intended to facilitate the study of the original data.
PAC has not even formed a study committee including technicians to review the documents yet.
Meanwhile, Ekram Giri, secretary at PAC Secretariat, said that it might take a year to study all the documents provided by NEA, claiming that they are being randomly studied.
Giri also did not specify which documents were under review.
Lack of support from the coalition partner Congress put CPN-UML in a difficult situation for attempting to recommend action against the NEA leadership without thoroughly reviewing the documents.
Committee member and Nepali Congress lawmaker Arjun Narasingha KC stressed that the focus should be on collecting outstanding dues from industrialists by properly studying the documents provided by NEA rather than taking action against alleged irregularities by the authority’s leadership.
“We will conduct a separate investigation into the alleged irregularities by the NEA leadership,” Said KC. “But, we should prioritise collecting the dues from the industrialists at the moment.”
Despite the authority’s efforts to collect arrears amounting to about Rs 22 billion, industrialists demanded proof of bills and refused to pay, leading the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government to form an inquiry commission led by former Supreme Court justice Girish Chandra Lal.
Following the commission’s recommendation, the Dahal-led government decided to collect additional fees amounting to Rs 6.6 billion for the supply of electricity from early 2016 to April 2018. The NEA has asked the industries, in writing, to collect around Rs 8.25 billion in fees including a 25% fine.
However, industries have refused to pay the arrears, citing the lack of TOD metre data.
PM Oli’s speech in the House of Representatives on July 21, supporting the industrialists' stance and criticising Ghising, raised suspicions that the proposal to investigate the authority’s leadership might have been a pretext to remove him.
While Pokharel and other UML lawmakers accused the authority’s leadership of deliberately waiving electricity dues to industrialists, Congress MP KC defended Ghising saying, “Action should not be taken against the person who has been trying his best to collect outstanding dues from industrialists.”
“Why should industries be exempted from paying their long-overdue tariffs when general people get their electricity supply cut if they fail to make payment on time?” KC questioned.
