Govt fires ‘rotten’ Escom directors: Energy ministry promises change at power utility
Malawi government has on Tuesday talked tough of corruption at Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) and a senior official in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy say some of the directors at the power house have been fired.
Chimwemwe Banda, chief director (Energy) in the ministry told the parliamentary committee on Government Assurance Committee on Tuesday that corruption at Escom reached embarrassing levels.
“This is why we have now restructured the Escom management set up. We have now hired new directors. The restructuring process was instituted to get rid of corrupt elements,” she said.
Banda said this in response to a question from a member of Parliament’s Commission on what action they have taken following reports of 3.8 million litres of diesel theft of about K1.9 billion, misprocurement of power gensets and financial mismanagement at Escom.
This is the first time that the government has come in the open to concede financial malfeaces at Escom.
Banda told the parliamentarians that Escom offcials used to buy items which were not needed at all and used to hire vehicles when they were not wanted probably just to get kick-backs.
“The ministry is not pleased with corruption at Escom. We are not pleased at all, this is why the government undertook the restructuring program,” she said.
Banda said the new sEcom management led by CEO Allexon Chiwaya would clean the slate .
“A task force has been formed by the board to scrutinise procurement transactions and there is a new procurement officer seconded from the government,” Banda said.
Parliamentarians sitting on the committee applauded the government for being bold enough to tackle corruption head on at Escom.
Some of the committee members said the move by the government showed that the corruption at Escom was not high-level sanctioned.
Some government reports indicate Escom, Admarc and water boards are worse when it comes to corruption but the government seem not to do anything to curb the situation.
The audit of Escom financial statement for the financial year ended june 30, 2017 found that the corporation ordered goods worth K8.3 billion from about 23 suppliers without following internal procurement procedures and without the knowledge of key management.
Out of K8.3 billion worth of items, Escom only needed K3.2 billion of them.
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Construction boss or new insallation boss do you inspect or check your juniors work or data .Malawians lets the other meet at game and demonstrate against Escom to remove these bosses CONSTRUCTION,NEW INSTALLATION ,NEW METER coz they are the ones failing by not checking on their juniors. Meter boss your more than 10 maize mills does it take time to fix meters. LILONGWE the worst in NEW installations.
Simple to overcome these demacate these people having two parallel staff CONSTRUCTION ,METER and NEW INSTALLATION wih differents boss and see who is efficiency.
ESCOM ROTTEN
Directors not effective cause they dont check there records or Data properly.Construction,Procurement and NEW installation FAULTS mmmmm not efficiency you can fire these section bosses they do not check what the juniors are doing on the ground. Very eager and fast to get the messurements for quotation.LILONGWE mavuto to get the quotation deliberately delay they need unyeme.Quatation out and you paid koma construction people for the poles or drop wire mmmm if you dont give them money two years can elapse and the demand here mmm very exorbitant. Money going to peoples pocket more than what the company is getting. They can construct and to get the meter fixed mmm every step is very painful. Meter boss at crossroads very adarmant. It can take a year to get just a meter even the fixers looking for minor errors, to get something.
By deciding and implement the decision of firing, it means Government has evidence that a criminal case happened?
Nde mwati kuthana nawo kwake mwangowachotsa basi? No criminal cases against them? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Chimwemwe Banda are you serious? Ndiye tamveleni ma MP amvekela we are happy………… basi zathela pompo? Guys the way you make decisions stinks a lot……………………………….!! Basiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii zathela pompo?
In a country like Malawi US$5million going missing or squandered should be a big deal and shouldn’t be a matter where a few senior individuals are asked to leave the company. Heads should roll and employees charged criminally. The culprits belong to jail. In Malawi, we recycle those who have been caught and assign them new positions when Malawians are sleeping. I wouldn’t be surprised if those that have been asked to leave appear at Admarc or some govt departments as PS or Directors.
Nanga Jophrey wa Jophrey mumutani because she goes to ESCOM to draw fuel for lorries to ferry peope to DPP rallies . How are you going to handle that ?
ESCOM, Water, Lands & Survey departments etc are all a cause of shame!
This government in particular the Executive should fire itself as well for gloss incompetence, blatant failure and shameless theft and corruption.
Agalu Inu. Agalu inu. Mbuye wanu Alamu Pumani Mwakalamba dzana dzanali appeared in a Pioneer Investment corruption at Police involving K145 million. Ambuye anu omwewo adabweza zakubazo. Inu a ESCOM ndinu ndani? Amangeni anabawo osati muwabise. Alamu Pumani Mwakalamba akumangira mkazi ma flat ku Ntaya six miles. Kukupitanso tala. Mwatipezerera zedi.
Typical. We don’t know the fired staff. We can suspect what connections the new team has with the Powers Be
These mathafakaz, firing the directors is just 1% of the solution. Investigations have to be done and all the mathafakaz who were involved have to face the fucking law. Am sure apumbwa are afraid of this being investigated bcoz they are the chief mathafakaz in this issue.
I dont know kaya is the reporter’s problem but I don’t get any story here.
Tazifulurani nkhani bwinobwino mwachifatse.
Chiwaya ali konko kale, he is part of corruption practices going on, what is this cleaning about
Which directors have been removed?
our sleeping government, board members. When the former boss who refused to authorise unnecessary transactions, where were you?
Firing them will not recover the lost money.
Who are these people?
Are they going to pay for the crime.
Are you raising tariffs now wakubto recover the lost revenue?
Why should poor Malawian pay for other people’s greedy?
Even you Chimwemwe Banda you are there by Patronage, starting from the time of UDF. We need clean people in Ministries who can understand issues and advocate change not Political appointees who can not properly articulate issues. ESCOM is a highly Technical orgs,
Fotseki why not report them to police .If audit was done then the Auditors were supposed to take legal action..Now is interesting is how were the new staff recruited? Kulembana nchito pachiweniweni. No advertising the position fotseki DPP
Is Chiwaya better than Evelyn Mwapasa?
i don’t think so, tionera limodzi
This is a joke of a century. So madam Banda and your DPP government thinks its only ESCOM where corruption has reached stinking levels. Why not MACRA? Who are you fooling ? Your time is up you better start cleaning your tables
@Nox Nthambi
Some Malawians are pathetically dull. Didn’t you hear that Banda was talking as an official from the ministry of energy? And here you are you dull man talking about MACRA? Seriously, did you expect Banda to talk about the ministry of information and not that of energy where she works? Eish! Pathetic Malawi.
Nox please don’t insult my intelligence. Please place your comment in line with the story above, don’t mix up things. Chimwemwe Banda is for Escom not Macra. Eish some people!
The works of SKC yielding fruit. Go UTM. Lets get lead of this vice (DPP). ESCOM is the tip in the iceberg.
It’s not related ambuye. SKC wapanga chani kodi? Don’t be brain washed. Have an open mind and look at things soberly. The guy is using our taxes while doing nothing in the office and you cadets you see nothing wrong with that. And a question that UTM cadets, including SKC wanuyo, has failed to answer convincingly is that if APM had given SKC an chance to stand as DPP candidate, akadaukana u president? Let’s face it folks, SKC started UTM out of frustration. He has been part of the system for more than 4 years (I believe he was still in DPP during late Bingu days) and today he should not claim to be clean. If he is clean, why is he failing to name and shame the people he is claiming that are thieves?
We all know the thieves. We do not need SKC to tell us. Remember who was caught pants down with MK145m in a corruption scam? Those are the thieves!
To be in DPP does not mean that you are involved in everything. SCK was in there but was sidelined, not even a position in the party so don’t tell us he was there. How many people in DPP were mentioned in Police ration saga?
If the activities were not sanctioned by the pumbwa government, why not Institute prosecution processes? Firing is not enoigh, report them to police and let the law take its course!
sure, action taken is abit surprising, chinyenga aphunzitsi apatsana ntchito kuseliku…
ma cadet a DPP apa mukuti bwanji
Better late then never. But it’s not only escom, admarc or water boards biggest culprits are bosses at MACRA, MERA, ROAD TRAFFIC, IMMIGRATION. MRA, ALL MONEY GIVING COWS IN THE GOVT ARE MILKED DAILY BY THE MBAVAS YA DPP. Drain these swamps. Imagine this DG of macra has about MK 3.3 Billion kwachas lying idle in his bank accounts. And yet ACB are still trying to find the source of that huge amount of monies. Isnt it obvious that money is stolen coz even if this thief itaye worked all his lifetime LEGITIMATELY and with conscious he COULD have never accumulated this much monies. WAKUBAYOOOOOOOOOO WAKUBAYOOOOOOOOOO WAKUBAYOOOOOOOOOO…. ITAYE WAKUBAYOOOOOOOOOO
DPP MOTO: STEAL AND LETS STEAL MORE.
MBAVAS WOYEEEEEEE
just firing them that’s all??
shame on this rotten government and rotten police!!!!!!!!
Boza ilo ma corrupt kingfish are still there who connive with juniors and solicit money from customers. I applied for connection last year here in mzuzu up to now am not yet connected yet my friend who paid last month have been connected. Please make sure that the list of new customers should be displayed to the public showing date of applications then corruption will be totally eliminated at Escom.
Yes, you have banged the nail on the head. Publish the names of the applicants and display them on notice boards and any other platform. Access to information bill/act supports this.
True boss. Why hiding names of these stinking thieves? Something amis here…time will come when God shall reveal you and you shall be put to public shame