KSEB embarks on austerity drive

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 24. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has decided to set in motion a series of measures to bring down extravagant expenditure.

The decision on these austerity measures was taken at the full- board meeting of the KSEB here today following a Government directive to tone up the financial management of the institution.

The meeting found the KSEB incurring quite a lot of unjustifiable expenses through the system of `rate revision,' which has been in vogue for the past many years. There is a full- fledged `rate revision committee' in the KSEB presiding over this activity.

This committee is vested with the responsibility of examining requests from contractors for upward revisions in the rates approved while awarding contracts to them. Hardly any work awarded through the tender process gets completed in the KSEB at the rate originally agreed upon.

The strategy of the contractors who have the right kind of connections within the Board is to underquote their rates to ensure that they win the contracts. Then, at every stage of the works, they approach the rate revision committee with the request for an increase in the rate, citing some excuse or the other. And, almost invariably, their requests are favourably dealt with by the committee.

A random check on such cases recently showed that the rate revision exercise follows a regular pattern. Even the reasons cited by the contractors to justify their requests for rate revision have a pattern of their own.

Invariably, due to the generosity of the rate revision committee, the contractor's final bill touches a much higher level than the rates quoted by the others who had participated in the tender for the work concerned.

The full board meeting today agreed that this practice had to be stopped. It is not just that the system, the way it is being practised in the KSEB, is irregular. It virtually makes a mockery of the tender process.

Today's meeting, therefore, decided to dismantle the rate revision committee with immediate effect. It was decided that a permanent mechanism for rate revision is not necessary in the KSEB.

Instead, to examine genuine requests for rate revision, there will be other independent mechanisms of an impermanent nature with expertise from within and outside the KSEB. Upward revisions will not be allowed to go above the rate quoted by the second lowest bidder in the tender process.

The meeting decided to sell all petrol cars being used in various offices of the KSEB. There are more than 80 such cars and the per kilometre running expenses of some of them come to Rs. 25 or above.

Instead, in emergency situations, the offices of the Electrical Major Sections of the Board can hire taxis. Limits are being set for use of taxis also.

One of the major reasons for the KSEB's financial difficulties is the loss of revenue due to power pilferage. The Board decided to go in for a two-pronged approach to address this problem.

The first is to break the nexus some of the employees might have surely built up with the beneficiaries of the pilfering exercise.

The Board felt that this could be accomplished by transferring to nearby places all employees who had put in more than five years of service at a particular place.

The second measure involves replacing all defective meters at the consumers' end.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : 'I will work to restore Garden City's glory'
Next     : 'Mahe should not be annexed to Kerala'