10 high-ranking officials of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) have been terminated from service after being involved in serious corruption.
The terminated officers include nine sub-divisional officers (SDOs) and one executive engineer (XEN). According to details, one of the SDOs registered fake FIRs against consumers and charged them detection bills for his own benefit.
Furthermore, 17 other officials were heavily fined by the company. Lesco Director (Customer Service) Rai Muhammad Asghar told a national daily that such extreme disciplinary action against numerous officers has never been taken in the company in the past.
He added that action against Lesco officers will continue side by side with the ongoing operation against power theft. Documents have revealed that Kot Khawaja Saeed SDO, Usman Ghani, was investigated in four different cases.
It includes illegal FIR registration, charging the consumers detection bills under ulterior motives, facilitating power theft, and helping out defaulters by restoring their power supply unlawfully and intentionally delaying bills.
The investigation found Safdarabad SDO Habibur Rehman and Phoolnagar SDO involved in facilitating power theft and billing fraud, respectively.
Other officers removed from service include Bilal Ganj SDO, Ehsanullah Farooqi, Allama Iqbal town SDO, Tanveer Khan, Mehmood Booti SDO, Sirajuddin Kakar, Kahna SDO, Amir Aziz, Ali Razabad SDO, Nadeem Akhtar, Qila Sattar Shah SDO, Mehboob Alam, and Kasur Rural Division Executive Engineer, Imdad Ali Naich.
They were involved in various illegal activities such as installing illegal connections, receiving bribes, fleecing the consumers through over-billing and much more.
Moreover, the officers who were severely fined for overbilling, poor performance, and other charges included Mohsin Ali, Habib Ahmad, Rana Abid Dilshad, Ibrahim Mumtaz Mufti, Shahid Farooq, Imdad Ali, Muhammad Muzammil, Ali Abbas, Mirza Aqeel Baig, Rashid Soomro, Zafarullah, Waqar Ahmad, and Asif Majeed.
Lesco CEO, Shahid Haidar, revealed that an investigation is underway against other officers as well, who will be either removed from service or face strict punishment.
Via: Dawn
