Mera hits at Escom over underperformance

Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) has accused state run electricity distributor Escom of underperformance.

Mera executive director Collins Magalasi said the energy regulator’s assessment of Escom from October to December show that the state power company has failed to meet set key targets.

“There are several key targets Escom has failed to achieve. We agreed that they needed to invest more in infrastructure, they have not done it,” said Magalasi.

Magalasi also accused Escom of failing to collect debt, saying there are so many individuals, organizations and government departments which owe Escom billions of money but the power utility company is failing to recover the money.

He also said Mera and Escom had agreed for 90, 000 new connections between October and December but Escom managed to make 22,000 new connections only.

Spokesperson for Escom Innoent Chitosi said his organisaton failed to achieve some key targets because of financial problems.

“We have made huge sacrifices to ensure that our customers get quality services but the problem is finances,” said Chitosi.

He said for instance, government departments and ministries are failing to pay their debt to Escom.

“This is a general problem. The government departments and ministries have also appeared before the Public Accounts Parliamentary committee,” said Chitosi.

He also said a lot of money went to the hiring of the gen sets during the electricity problems.