LAHORE:The Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) paid over Rs 3.5 million to members of the Board of Directors (BoD) just for attending meetings during the period of July 2019 till date.
Sources in LWMC revealed that other than honorarium, lavish lunches were also served in every meeting either its board meeting or a departmental meeting.
The cost of lunches served in the meetings was also more that 0.5 million. Access to the Internet was also provided to all members in shape of independent Internet devices, costing around Rs4,000 per month, sources revealed.
They said that many members who were heading or part of different committees got fee of each meeting separately.They also claimed that Managing Director Rao Imtiaz also renovated his room. Despite luxury meeting rooms, the MD changed the adjacent room to his office in a meeting room.
Sources said as per the record of LWMC’s finance department of payments to board members from 1st July 2019 till 24 January 2020, Kamran Khurshid got Rs840,000, Tariq Mehmood Butt Rs735,000, Khaliq-us-Zaman Rs720,000, Ahmed Taha Rs690,000, Shehryar Hashim Rs250,000, Neelum Afzal Rs195,000, Chairman BOD Riaz Hameed Rs180,000, Yasir Mubeen Rs150,000, former DC Lahore Saleha Saeed Rs 60,000, Ali Ijaz and Nisar Ahmed got Rs 50,000 each, Muhammad Anwar Rs 25,000, then Acting DC Muhammad Asghar Rs 15,000 and present DC Lahore Danish Afzal also received Rs 15,000.
When contacted, LWMC BoD Chairman Riaz Hameed said that as per law every board member was entitled to get Rs12,000 (after tax deduction of Rs 3,000 from Rs 15,000) for attending a meeting.
He said it was true that earlier members received multiple charges for attending meetings in a single day but he had cancelled the practice now. The LWMC chairman said, “Every member will claim single payment of Rs 12,000 in a day even if he attends multiple meetings. Under austerity measures, the company is saving around Rs 210 million every month.”
He added various cost-cutting measures, rationalization of vehicles and petrol facility, provision of the Internet and other measures had been taken. Talking about using two company vehicles himself, he said he occasionally used a company vehicle and in routine he used his own car for even official visits.
On renovation of the MD room, he said that only Rs 17,000 was spend on it. The chairman denied serving of lavish lunches to the BoD members during meetings and said no amount was used for it.