LAHORE, Dec 20: The Water and Power Development Authority has decided to replace heads of all eight distribution companies, serving brigadiers, with career engineers.

A Ministry of Water and Power official noted that the Authority had appointed chief engineers on Friday for five of the companies — the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company, the Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company, the Lahore Electricity Supply Company, the Multan Electric Power Company and the Gujranwala Electricity Power Company. Chief engineers had already been appointed for the remaining three — the Peshawar, Hyderabad and Quetta companies.

The chief engineers, the ministry source said, would be the second senior-most executive at the respective companies and officiate in their absence. Once it is decided to formally replace the present chief executives, the posts will be upgraded to general manager and chief executive. Three chief engineers incharge of grid system operations and design and investment control will support the prospective GMs.

The decision is said to have been the outcome of a host of factors including World Bank pressure. The Wapda chairman’s impending retirement from the army and a likely extension in Wapda service is another factor. The confusion about line losses, too, is said to have forced the management to revise the executive hierarchy in these companies. During a recent visit a World Bank team noted declining technical standards in the companies which now employ 80 per cent of the Wapda manpower.

Dilating upon the reasons behind the Bank’s skepticism about technical standards, the ministrty said: “The army management, during its three year tenure, has been single-mindedly focused on revenue generation to make Wapda look healthy. An aspect of this policy was the progressively declining maintenance and management budget to reduce the expenditure. This resulted in a brain drain and many technically brilliant people left the Wapda. The weakness was spotted by the World Bank team during its recent visit. The team asked the Wapda to strengthen the companies by inducting and empowering qualified technical staff.

A Wapda official said the chairman’s imminent retirement from the army had a direct bearing on the decision. He has been granted a two-year extension as Wapda chief. Even now, the brigadiers heading the distribution companies are working under the administrative control of the respective crops commanders. It was, he said, that the best way to maintain the monolithic nature of the administration was to replace the brigadiers.

An important factor necessitating the exit plan was the confusion about the line loss figures and the DISCO chiefs’ capacity to control them. “The Chief Executive’s Secretariat recently asked for independent reports from the Wapda and the Ministry for Water and Power on the line losses. The reports contradicted each other. This led to official pressure to knock things into line,” another official at the ministry said. The president, he said, wanted the Wapda to control the line losses instead of permanently asking for tariff increases. The technical people are required to get results, he said.

About the chances of success, a former Wapda member (Power) said: “The engineers, being appointed now in the DISCOs, have been working with the Wapda for the last many years. They have been ‘Wapdized’ in more than one way. Their capacity and will to deliver is a question mark. The Wapda authorities would have done better hiring engineers from the private sector who could deliver. The success story of the Pakistan Electric Power Company should served as a reminder to Wapda. The PEPCO was able to meet all its deadlines on the strength of people from the private sector,” he said.