PESHAWAR - National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has initiated an inquiry in a mega scam of overbilling 40 million extra units against 25,000 consumers which amounts to Rs240 million and thereby illegally over-burdened the downtrodden strata of society in order to conceal the misdeeds of PESCO officials of Hazara.
As per details, the bureau taking cognizance of the complaints received at the bureau alleging therein overbilling to consumers, authorised the inquiry. During the course of the inquiry, it was revealed that the officials of PESCO in Hazara-I and Hazara-II circles, in connivance with each other, charged fake, fabricated, maneuvered and exaggerated units into official records against the consumers/general public conversely to the original meter reading.
These fraudulent, dishonest and exaggerated figures were used by the officials to conceal their misdeeds and theft caused with their connivance, resultantly putting extra financial burden on the general public without any justification.
Further, upon receiving complaints from consumers, the corrupt officials illegally issued Meter Change Orders (MCOs) to consumers in PESCO record, though in reality no meter was changed on ground. During inquiry, it was also revealed that in other three circles of Hazara comprising of more than hundreds of thousands consumers, the same modus operandi has been adopted by the officials of PESCO, the inquiry of the same will be initiated shortly.
It merits mentioning here that Chairman NAB Justice Javed Iqbal, since assuming the charge, has time and again vowed and stressed that NAB will ensure transparency and improvement in service delivery so that a sigh of relief is provided to the general public.