ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau is reported have decided to take action against fake and fictitious billing by power distribution companies.

Sources told Dawn on Monday that NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry had told a meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar recently that the bureau had recovered over Rs5bn last year but most of the claims / bills of distribution companies were found to be bogus and inaccurate. And as a result of action on bogus claims, the NAB has been facing over 600 fresh litigations.

Mr Chaudhry told the meeting that NAB would certainly recover the defaulted money but it would also take action against the officials of distribution companies who submitted fal(e claims.

The bureau would take action against defaulters in future according to its own laws and procedure which required complaint verification, inquiry and proper investigation, he said.

A senior official of the bureau told Dawn that during last year`s campaign against defaulters, the NAB came to know that more than 80 per cent bills were bogus or fictitious.

`Most of the alleged defaulters were innocent and they moved courts against NAB.

He said the lists provided by power distribution companies were inaccurate, so the NAB asked their chief executive officers to sign them, otherwise, no action would be taken against the alleged defaulters. But not a single list was approved or signed by the head of a company, he said.

The ofhcial said according to the ministry of water and power total re ceivables, including R s400bn owe d by private consumers, stood at over Rs580bn.

He said distribution companies hadsofarnotprovidedlists ordetails of defaulters.