Islamabad, Jun 27 (IANS): Korean investors have filed a claim with the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) against the government of Pakistan, seeking $94 million in compensation.
The investors claimed that the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) failed to evacuate electricity from the 147-megawatt Patrind Hydropower project for at least six months after the project's COD, as well as the cost of constructing a point from which the electricity was to be delivered to the national grid, Geo News quoted a top official of the power division as saying.
According to the official, the power division, under Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir, smelt a rate and decided to fix the racket of unscrupulous officials of NTDC, CPPA, and power division who were responsible for not evacuating electricity from the project on time and raising no objection to a Korean company that set up a delivery point that NTDC did not want because it wanted to evacuate electricity from another point, Geo News reported.
However, the delivery point, which NTDC did not want, was built by a Korean company, Star Hydro Power Limited (SHPL), resulting in an increase in project costs that was not reflected in the true-up of the electricity generated by the Patrind Hydropower project.
According to the official, the investigation shows that NTDC did not object when the Korean company built the electricity delivery point that the state-owned entity did not want.
NTDC is currently dealing with transmission projects totaling 421 billion PKR, reports Geo News.
"We have removed a joint secretary who allegedly developed vested interests with NTDC for various projects," the official said.
"There are reports the same racket will launch some officials who will represent NTDC in LCIA and will give technical input in the case not up to the mark ensuring the government of Pakistan loses the case and in return they will manage some "commission" in British pounds," senior officials in the power division confided to The News.
"We will keep a vigilant eye on the case proceedings," they said.
They claimed that when Shehbaz Sharif became Prime Minister, this matter was brought before him.
He formed a committee to investigate out-of-court settlement options, arguing that the government's track record shows that it is frequently defeated in arbitration.