MERA Accuses Escom for Underperformance

Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) has accused the state run electricity distributor Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) for underperformance.

This has been said by the MERA executive director Collins Magalasi.

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.

He continue by accusing Escom of failure to collect debt, citing that there are some individuals and organizations and government departments that are owning Escom billions of money but it si unfortunate that Escom is failing to recover the money.

Magalasi added that MERA had a deal with Escom to have 90, 000 new connections within October and December but Escom only had 22, 000 new connections.

Responding on the accusation, Escom spokesperson Innocent Chitosi said the reason for the company’s failure is financial problems.

“We tried our best to meet our customers’ demands but the problem is finances,” said Chitosi.

He gave an example of government departments failing to pay back their debts to Escom.

He added that their failure is a general problem as ministries have also appeared before Public Accounts Parliamentary committee.

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