By Draxon Maloya
MZUZU-(MaraviPost)-Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA)’s Executive Director John Kapito has echoed calls for the unbundling of the Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) blaming it for the high cost of hydro-electric power in the country.
Kapito says whatever EGENCO is doing was already being properly managed as a department under the Electricity supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) therefore its creation is just an unnecessary duplication of work aimed at syphoning out public funds.
Speaking in Mzuzu during the Electricity Base Tariff Application hearing Kapito had no any kind word for the power generation company which he said is a company created without capital.
“ESCOM was generating and selling power to the consumers at affordable rates and there was very little that was being abused unlike now when a full scale company was established without even any capital, simply inheriting what used to be an ESCOM power generation department,” Kapito said.
The CAMA boss further blasted ESCOM for the extravagance since its office was gutted down with fire twelve years ago saying the utility body is renting very expensive houses for staff, expensive office apartments and buying very expensive cars.
“Houses being rented for ESCOM staff are very expensive villas, very expensive office buildings and they continue buying expensive vehicles for their staff and even their families and here today they are proposing electricity base tariff hike, that is unacceptable,” Kapito said.
An official who works for the Fire Rescue department at Mzuzu Airport, Oscar Lemon and the Mzuzu Young Voices Chairperson, Gift Mtenje were among other notable speakers who gave MERA and ESCOM tough times during deliberations stating that the Tariff hike proposal is completely unjustifiable advising them to revisit their extravagant expenditures.
Responding to calls for the dissolution of EGENCO the Chief Executive Officer for MERA, Henry Kachaje defended the company stating that its existence plays a significant role in the expansion of power generation capacity.
However, Kachaje conceded that the absence of constitution powers for MERA to remit administrative decisions in situations of reported extravagance in the management of resources at ESCOM renders it incapacitated to act.
“The current constitutional provisions gives MERA no administrative responsibility to act on any of the two companies in case of reports of mismanagement of resources,” Kachaje said.
However, on the proposed electricity base tariff application the MERA CEO admitted that currently the country is failing to improve the power sector hence need for this generation to sacrifice by paying more towards energy sustainability.
In line with the 2017 Tariff Methodology, one every four years power sector licensees prepare and submit their business plan to the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) for consideration and approval to finance both operational and capital requirements.
Meanwhile, the Public Hearing on the 2023-2027 electricity Tariff application proposes a staggered 68 Percent increase aimed at enhancing the measurement of losses, the current end user Tariff absorbs indicates ESCOM reporting 22.2 percent loss in the excess of MERA approved 16 percent translating to approximately Mk29. 55 billion annually.