Chilima impressed with Egenco financial status: Govt fixing Escom to serve better

Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima has expressed satisfaction with the financial status of the Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) and the strategic direction it is taking to achieve its goals.

However, Chilima says he is concerned with the mess that is at the Electricity Supply of Malawi (ESCOM), which he believes is responsible for the financial impudence associated with the parastatal.

He expressed the sentiments after his meeting with the management teams of ESCOM and EGENCO in Blantyre today to get appraised on the current performance status as well as to take stock of the interventions being made to eliminate rigidities impacting on service delivery for the two institutions especially ESCOM.

“For EGENCO, I have been updated on the company’s reforms performance status which shows tremendous progress in reforms implementation, strategic direction as well as the status of the organization’s financial health,” he said.

Chilima said it is commendable that from the 57.7 MW that EGENCO added to the national grid since 2017 after the unbundling process, the company has managed to utilize its own funds to carry out various projects except for the rehabilitation, modernisation and upgrading of Nkula A which was a grant under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCC).

He added that at the moment, EGENCO is in excellent finanacial situation with a clear strategic direction.

“We have assured the management team that we will keep tracking progress to ensure that the company remains in such good state without going astray like what happened to ESCOM, which just three years ago, was in a good financial health,” he said.

Turning to ESCOM, Chilima said they have resolved that its turn-around strategy should be put into effect within September 2020.

He said the turn-around strategy will be led by a Task Team that will comprise members from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Justice and Department of Statutory Corporations.

“The administration of His Excellency Dr. Lazarus Chakwera is committed to fixing ESCOM so that it serves the people of Malawi better and with efficiency. As such, no one within ESCOM must attempt to frustrate the efforts this far. The consequences will be severe. We will push until we get back an ESCOM that we all yearn for as a country.

“To this effect, I am impressed that ESCOM management is already up and running correcting some wrong decisions that contributed to the current poor financial state of the parastatal. For example, it is working on its Power Purchase Agreement with Aggreko so that ESCOM only buys power without supplying diesel to Aggreko. ESCOM is also working on fleet management basing on cost benefit analysis to help the institution save resources,” he explained.

According to the Veep, the Corporation is also accelerating installation of pre-paid meters in government ministries and departments to improve its cash flow. The Malawi/Mozambique 400kV power interconnector will also be expedited, concluded and commissioned by December 2022.

“Going forward, I have assured ESCOM that we will continue engaging them until we produce results and take the company out of its current poor financial state in the shortest period possible,” said Chilima.

Currently, the Veep is holding technical meetings with officials from different parastatals as part of the public sector reforms that fall under his ministry.

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