Chilima engages Escom, Egenco on power all day: Meets MBC top brass
Vice President Salous Chilima on Wednesday held a joint meeting with the top leadership of Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) to ensure there is power all day, everyday in the country.
Chilima said later in the day he also met Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) top management in a drive to free the public broadcaster from political capture.
He said the meetings were part of the public sector reforms that he is championing under the leadership of President Lazarous Chawera.
“As we start engaging individual parastatals following the Reforms Status Reports that they have been submitting to my office, today I had a joint meeting with the top officials of Escom and Egenco in our bid to ensure that there is stable and uninterrupted power supply in the country,” wrote Chilima on his official Facebook page.
The Veep said during the meeting Egenco, as a power generating company, presented a number of challenges choking its operations which include billions of unpaid electricity bills sold to Escom.
“The non-conclusive unbundling process that has left Egenco without legal title of assets; high operating costs from running diesel generators; and environmental degradation of the Shire Valley catchment area that has had adverse effects on its generation operations,” he said.
Chilima further said on its part Escom, as a power supplier, also presented a number of challenges including a K1.8 billion average monthly bill which Egenco charges which Escom feels is not sustainable.
He said Escom also complained about non-payment of bills by some government ministries and Departments who owe the power utility body billions in unpaid bills.
“The institution is also losing investments due to rampant vandalism among other legal and financial challenges,” said Chilima.
The Veep however says the meeting resolved that by next week, all the challenges that Egenco and Escom presented will be dealt with at a decision-making meeting that he will hold together with other government stakeholders with the two institutions.
“We must all go to work as soon as possible. Moving forward, we are devising a 24-month plan with Egenco and Escom to ensure that the current stable power supply maintains or further improves. The ultimate goal is to ensure that within the same timeframe, there must be surplus production of power that will ably sustain the manufacturing industries,” he says.
Chilima says the government will soon announce measures and mechanisms that are being put in place to ensure that issues of interrupted power supply are completely dealt with once and for all.
The Veep added that the government will also review all the interventions at hand to make sure that they make financial sense to the economy in the quest of power generation.
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MBA another covidised institution. Top brass a compromised team. They are beating their heads to relieve themselves of the current nightmares brought about by the Tonse Government. The Tonse guys aren’t in search of spindoctors so the MBC crew won’t impress the government by way of flattery. The Tonse guys have been through a lot of hell to get where they’re pushing the democracy trolleys to various corners of our great Republic. MBC has yet to cleanse itself. The rains aren’t here but clouds have started gathering over your leaking village
If rationing was genuine,then going full throttle will deplete the water and be assured of a worse october,november and december going into January.With power generatikn the more you use the more water is used.
Akutipulatu bwanawa. Keep it up SKC.
MBC has merely shifted the focus of its camera lenses and narrative from DPP and APM to MCP and LC as they struggle to impress the new fingers on the chiongolero. So unprofessional.
I don’t understand what you want to tell the country in your post – please explain more it’s the relevance to what the VP is doing?
Boma ilo, brilliant.
MBC needs total overhaul.
MBC needs to be closed and rebooted just like we do with computers. There are viruses there. The cadets are viruses that destroy everything. It has been not easy to fight the anti-viruses in Chakwera and Chilima and pleaase do not let these viruses mutate otherwise they will eat and destroy you. They are Malawians yes but worked against development.
These parastatals are messed up or infested with people that do not qualify and that is the reason the standards went down. It is politics that has ruled the country since 1994 and not professionalism. People were being rewarded for supporting a ruling party and all this started with Bakili Muluzi. Standards went down almost in every sector be it in construction, education, power generation, health sector etc. Malawians must change their mind set and think of increasing production and not consumption. Chilima fits well here. If you read why Europeans scrambled for Africa and fought wars all over the… Read more »
Can you also look into mota engil – Mia corruption, the mwenye has been in cabinet for less than two weeks and mota engil has already started claiming k50 billion arrears dating as far back as 2007. We don’t want cabinet ministers pulling the strings behind the latest claims.
Also reform the judiciary please, its very corrupt
Mr reforms, when will you visit MERA and chastise them for overpriced fuel as part of dpp looting scheme. You said correct prices should be around k523 per litre