By Linda Kwanjana
After years of posting losses, year in year out , Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has in the past two years made a profit of K22Billion and K8Billion respectively.
This was disclosed in Mangochi when the parastatal rewarded four Mangochi based Linesmen who were captured on a vide as they were putting out fire on an electric power line. The video went viral last week on social media.
Escom Chief Executive Officer Kamkwamba Kumwenda says the company expects Malawians to start to enjoying improved electricity services now that the company is posting profits from a long history of making losses.
Kumwenda said for the past two financial years, ESCOM has posted K8 billion and K22 billion in profits respectively, which he said has enabled the corporation to clear out some connection works which were outstanding.
Kumwenda invited the general public to join Escom in fighting vandalism, which he said is costing the company a lot of money.
Since 2017 so much was being said about Escom, unfortunately, most of the narratives have been negative. From posting losses in 2017 to what appears to be organised fraud, abuse of billions of kwacha through misprocurements, fraud, corruption and abuse.
DPP has been abusing Escom left and right. A 2016/17 National Audit report shows that Escom and Admarc together abused K9.3 billion through procurement transactions the institutions could not account for. DPP through Escom ordered goods worth K8.3 billion from 23 suppliers without following procurement procedures and knowledge of key management.
This is the reason Kamkwamba is currently asking the general public to support the organization under President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.
Chakwera has clearly indicated that he will not allow anyone to abuse the parastatals.
