As the government was striving for the rightsising of the loss making entities in various ministries the Board of Directors of Pakistan Engineering Company Limited (PECO), has sprung into action by approving five years of delayed financial accounts and its general body meeting has been called on February 17, 2025. The last annual general meeting of PECO was held in September 2018.The Board of Directors of PECO has recently approved the annual accounts of the company stalled for the last five years revealing losses of Rs1.2 billion.Meanwhile in a statement the company has claimed that the under the Board’s guidance, the management has worked diligently to reconstruct the company’s financial records, rebuild its systems, and restore its reputation.Mirza Mahmood Ahmad, Chairman of the Board of Directors, PECO has said that by approving these accounts, the Board was re-establishing transparency, accountability, and a foundation for PECO’s revival.He added that PECO faced years of catastrophic mismanagement under its former Managing Director (MD), who was a nominee of the Ministry of Industries and Production (MOIP), and under his tenure the company faced financial losses exceeding Rs1.2 billion.Mairaj Anees Ariff served as the Chief Executive Officer, MD & Executive Director at PECO from 2016 to 2022 and the chairman of the Board added that the former MD, not only disregarded directives from the MoIP, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and the Ministry of Law but also actively prevented the Board of Directors from performing their duties. “This is a tragic example of the damage caused by unchecked mismanagement and neglect, but today marks a turning point,” Mr Ahmad added.The statement said that in 2018, the former MD barred Board members from entering the company premises and operated PECO’s bank accounts without legal authority, with single signature. The company’s accounts remained unaudited for over four years, with no Annual General Meetings (AGMs) held and no tax returns filed leading to its placement on the Pakistan Stock Exchange’s defaulters’ list. This neglect plunged PECO into default with suppliers and financial institutions.In September 2022 the Federal Government transferred him from the post with the directive to report to the Establishment Division.The Board in its meeting held recently has also approved an ambitious revitalisation plan. It was incorporated in 1950, in the name of Batala Engineering Company (BECO), manufacturing high quality machine tools, pumps, power looms, concrete mixers, cranes, power presses, electric motors, bicycles, steel rolled products, electricity transmission towers, structure and general fabrication.The industry was set up at Badami Bagh, Lahore at 34 acres, later an expansion was made in 1960 at 247 acres in Kot Lakhpat industrial zone.However, in 1972, the Government took over BECO and it was renamed as Pakistan Engineering Company (PECO). Under the restructuring plan of 2003, the corporate structure of the company was changed to Private – Public partnership mode and the private shareholding increased to 67 percent whereas the Government shareholding was 33 percent. However, the last annual result announced by the company shows that in the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2018, the total sales of PECO was Rs1.42 bn whereas the cost of sales was Rs1.39 bn, eventually ending 2017-18 in a loss of almost Rs70 million.
PECO proud of being in red.
