Wapda and its continuing losses depict the disease afflicting the Pakistani public sector as a whole. It is the incompetence of managements.

In case the situation is desired to be corrected and the prevalent psyche changed , one must concentrate on the selection of the CEO and the rest is likely to fall correctly in its place.

Keeping Wapda in view, a dissertation on the prerequisites of a perfect CEO for this utility is offered.

The management gurus may have different opinions and a plethora of dissertations to show off, but the best would always be home-spun or grown and for that one must look for in-house successful role models alone. Moreover, the quest and yearning for a profitable power utility and cheaper electricity further hastens the need to rebuild the fast crumbling edifice.

In order to do so, one should keep in mind the original charter for Wapda and the historical progression right from 1959 onwards. At one time Wapda stood synonymous with the dynamic and developing country of ours as against others. It was a showpiece specially for the Asian Tigers of the 1990s.

The proud Planning Commission showed Warsak, Mangla and Tarbela to foreign visitors. But that was aeons ago. Similarly, the utility once boasted an exclusive air-fleet of its own and many a federal minister would request rides, then these planes were used for shikars, too. The shining path it charted during the 1960s and the fast downward slide thereafter with the most deplorable decay in the last four years need to be kept in mind before a search for the perfect CEO takes place.

The phenomenal civil works undertaken during the 1960s and early 1970s under the Indus Basin Waters Treaty were thoroughly supervised by the then McNamara squeaky-clean World Bank, and the equally straight management of Wapda. The chairman or the CEOs then were all British trained and held reputations as the most important of their assets.

As pre-requirements of the then world, the CEO had to be a good administrator with the mindset to leave details to the professional.

Out of this arrangement grew the super professional in both water and power sectors. As this professional had the a paramount say in technical matters, while the management, specially the CEO, did its utmost to nurture and sustain the former, the professional could take a stand and still be there to see the next day. And thus, arose the infrastructure of a modern Pakistan.

In addition to water-related projects like dams, barrages, headworks, canals, the scarps, etc, the power sector grew in size from generation, transmission and distribution of only a few hundred Mega Watts to as much as 9,000 MW by the end of 1970s. The achievements included the laying of a national power grid and the erection of 500 KV transmission lines.

The electrification of rural areas in conjunction with urban development is another facet worth appreciating.

The validity and scope of planning of the 1960s in Wapda can be more aptly gauged when we see that this utility’s much touted Vision 2025 contains nothing but the moth-balled/relegated because of the less ROR (rate of return) water projects of those very plans barring the inclusion of flood canals. Incidentally, these canals too had been planned then as secondary projects. So much for planning then in comparison to the present times. Definitely, such callous inclusion of projects in the present mega-spending needs to be put on immediate hold.

Secondly, the CEO then had the necessary recognition, integrity and say or reach to get the things done. In this manner these individuals could liaise, interact and then were able to get the projects through the ministry concerned, the then very powerful Planning Commission and even the Presidency. This recognition had on the other hand, nothing to do with being from the same batch etc,. As such the third important attribute then, in addition to training and reputation, was recognition.Further observation revealed that these special individuals possessed deep insight of the nation’s working, the ability to assemble a team, operate on the basis of consensus building and then be able to respect the ensuing arrangement/edifice. All this can be summed up as the fourth attribute or quality viz-a-viz competence.

That competence, though of importance, comes out as the fourth quality in the order of merit, and is meaningful and attains even more eminence when we see that it is followed by patience or an even keel of a personality as the fifth distinction. Here in comes the sixth of the requirements which derives its existence to the combination of the first and the fourth of the attributes and can be listed as vision.

The CEOs then were indeed visionaries at least to the extent of their particular fields. Moreover, because of the unified planning activity for the country in vogue then, and that too, in the shape of (advance issued) 5-year plans, the logical outcome of training and competence would be vision. Presently this attribute or quality would be hard to come by.

After vision, we saw an uncanny commitment in the then CEOs. This was inherently different from the present ability to put in hard work or slog. In my opinion, hard work is surely a type of commitment, but can only be placed at much lower a rank in comparison. Lastly, we saw that there was no conflict of interest visible and the CEO then did not represent any group, party, special institution or an ideology. As a consequence the country,specially Wapda, progressed.

As against this CEO, with the eight attributes, we would now scrutinize the offering of the last three decades, what a contrast. We do come across some fine gentlemen, but none would fulfill the even minimum the above mentioned requirements. Unfortunately, some of the CEOs wouldn’t qualify to be placed in even a very junior slot. As a consequence, it has been downhill specially during the last one decade.

Dams are loosing storage capacity at much higher rate than envisaged or expected, mega projects like the NDP (National Drainage Project) have been mismanaged to the core with billions of loss to the nation, the Human esource has been relegated to the bottomless pit (Wapda engineers once competent, progressive and ever ready to cross the frontiers of innovations and knowledge now are non-professional and a shadow of the yester years— brain-drain an apt description), power stations have been derated to the minimum capacity with Wapda being held to ransom by the IPPs, transmission systems are no more systems. And the distribution of power remains entrenched in the sixties. This is why Wapda’s much touted and acclaimed Vision 2025 is but a rehash of old/trite with less ROR/relegated water projects. This is again the reason for not being able to come up with any new ideas during the last three decades. It would also be apt to state that Wapda House’s leaking rotunda is another proof of the above premise and a source of backbreaking work for its janitorial staff on rainy days.

How do we profit through proper management — surely by looking for a perfect CEO in the first instance and then by formulation of the required kind of higher management for Wapda. Here the best way would be to list all the eight attributes narrated in the preceding paras as pre-requisites for the CEO. Thereafter, a search for the perfect match would ensue. I am afraid anything less would not suffice and Wapda would not be able to come out of its present morose and losses.

Once the perfect CEO stands identified and recruited, then would come the turn to upgrade the rest of the higher management of this utility, which inherently comprises of the members, managing directors and the general manager. Similar would be the case with auxiliary and ancillary services i.e., the finance, accounts, audit, the S&GA, medical set-ups, etc. With the perfect CEO in place, the utility can start delivering in a period of six to twelve months. Hopefully, it would be sailing full steam as soon as 18 months from the date the perfect CEO takes over.

(The writer is the former Member Power,Wapda)