News
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
NAB issues payment of $120m notice to Karkey officials
* Turkish rental power plant ship failed to comply power accord
By Razi Syed
KARACHI: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued a notice to a private company, Turkey-Karkey Karadeniz Electrik Uretim, for the payment of $120 million on failing to generate power through its power-generating ship Karkey.
The accord to produce power came as part of an agreement signed three years ago between Pakistan and Turkey-Karkey Karadeniz Electrik Uretim.
Turkish rental power plant ship Karkey would have to repay $120 million in damages and principal amount that had been paid for generation of 230 megawatts (MW) of power.
NAB issued the notice on the directive of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) after hearing the case regarding Karkey.
The SC ordered NAB that the ship would not leave Pakistan without paying outstanding dues “otherwise NAB would be responsible for this effect”.
A NAB official said that two weeks have been given to the Turkish ship company’s officials to make payment of $120 million.
Turkish officials of the ship and the company have also been asked to ensure their presence before the NAB court in Islamabad before making payment.
Sources in the Maritime Security Agency (MSA) and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) said that NAB had earlier issued several letters to Karkey authorities in this connection, but no reply has so far been made in this respect.
Billions of rupees were spent on laying the infrastructure, cables and deployment of technicians and workers for generating 230MW of power, but hardly 30MW were generated, which caused huge losses to the government of Pakistan in the last three years.
Sources said that after reaching final settlement with Turkish authority, NAB would seek permission from the SC for giving green signal to Karkey to proceed to its homeland.
The Karkey ship arrived in Pakistan more than three years ago to add 230MW to the national grid. It did not produce the required power according to the accord made between the Ministry of Water and Power and Pakistan Electric Power Supply Company to supply electricity to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).
The production cost of power by Karkey was estimated around Rs 41 per unit, which was a huge price for local requirement.
The infrastructure including cables erected for transmission of power into the national grid system inflicted the national kitty with a loss of more than
Rs 1 billion.
The connection of the ship with the national grid system also cost more Rs 10 million losses to the national exchequer besides a heavy financial loss on back of money spent on the deployment of workers and technicians in this regard.
The plant was expected to improve power supply to Karachi but this never materialised. It never supplied power to KESC.
Before the SC’s verdict, the government, as per the power purchase agreement, was paying $9 million a month as rental charges to the Karkey power plant that earlier was producing 30MW of electricity against 230MW committed in the agreement.
The ship carrying world’s biggest rental power plant with a 250MW power generation capacity arrived in Karachi in November 2009.
As per Rental Service Agreements, the Pakistan Electric Power Company could not get the performance guarantees as commissioning of plant got delayed.
The Private Power Infrastructure Board recruited the plant with 93 percent availability for the next five years in the beginning of 2009.
Earlier, NAB allowed four burgesses allied with Karkey to Pakistan waters, as they were part of the system of the power plant ship.
The Karkey has already shifted two storage tanks and a small power plant to Port Qasim from Ibrahim Haideri Harbour.Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk