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… Read more »
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.