Bhubaneswar: At a time when people of the state, including the Capital city, are facing undeclared power outage, the Energy department has extended the contract period of a private entity having dubious track records to carry out power connection and distribution work in Dhenkanal, Angul, Paradip, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara areas.
The private entity, Enzen Global Solutions Private Ltd, has also been authorised to collect power bills from consumers from the above said areas.
According to sources, the authorities of Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu) of Odisha have recently extended the contract period of Enzen for 10 years (till June, 2028) at a board meeting even though the private company had flouted several guidelines during its earlier term. The entity has defaulted Rs 12.5 crore dues to the state, sources said.
Cesu authorities have engaged Enzen to carry out power connection and distribution without inviting a tender.
Cesu had engaged Enzen to work in the energy sector for a period of five years starting from November 2012. The original contract period of the private entity ended in October, 2017. As per the guidelines, Cesu was supposed to invite fresh tenders from private companies for collection of power dues and other works. Moreover, companies that had flouted norms and defaulted dues should not be given an extension.
Throwing all norms to the wind, a few influential officials of Cesu had given Enzen an extension from November 2017 to March this year. Showing undue favour to the company, the officials had again extended its term till June.
Another private entity, Shyam Power that was working in energy sector has defaulted Rs 45 crore to the government. The company may not get an extension, sources said.
Five years ago, the state government had announced to set up 500 new 33/11 kv sub-stations at a cost of around Rs 5 crore each. Accordingly, some sub-stations have been constructed and work on a few more is under way, it is learnt. However, people are not getting the benefits of these new projects due to the dubious activities of some private companies, engaged in the energy sector, it is observed.
When contacted, Cesu General Manager (Technical & Commercial) Manoj Singh admitted that there was a board meeting of the agency at its Idco Tower office in Bhubaneswar Thursday but he feigned ignorance about any decision to extend the contract period of Enzen.
Apart from showing undue favour to private companies, the Energy department is yet to devise a human resources management policy. Many engineers and sub-divisional officers (SDOs) have been working in particular places for more than a decade. Engineers and SDOs posted in and around the Capital city are reluctant to be shifted to remote areas, sources said.
It is learnt that the Energy department has been giving important assignments to some officers who were earlier involved in various irregularities. An official had faced departmental action for providing undue gain to a company a few years ago. However, he was posted as superintending engineer, last year.
Similarly, an officer, who had been punished for procurement of poor quality equipment 12 years ago, was recently asked to manage the storeroom of the department, sources said.
PNN