By Dorica Mtenje
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s sole utility power supplier Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) needs MK18.5 billion every to help the applicants.
ESCOM Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Clement Kanyama disclosed this on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 in a meeting with parliamentary committee on Natural resources.
Kanyama says ESCOM gets 25 percent from applicants contribution, which only contribute to 4.9bn
He says the utility body uses 202,000 to connect one applicant and they optimistic that they will be able to clear the backlog of 52,000 connections.
Kanyama disclosed that the corporation over-paid to EGENCO MK3.5billion under Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority ( MERA) citing as one of the challenges affecting its operations.
He also said that Blantyre Water Board (BWB) owes the utility body debt of MK19 billion as another challenge the company is failing to connect new customers
He said the company need to be working on long term structuring strategies for the betterment of Malawians.
In his remarks,Chairperson for the committee, Welan Chilenga said the Committee feels that challenge to connect customers is a result of the corruption at ESCOM that made the corporation loosing MK14billion.
Chilenga said the committee suspected breach of internal controls as some were being committed by officials
The committee condemned the illegal contract that was signed by the new CEO as the contract that was not properly constituted as they have said it is the last extension for AGRECCO.
