By Brenda Nkosi
Blantyre, July 20, Mana: New Minister of Energy, Newton Kambala on Monday took to task Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Management on alleged misuse of resources, including fuel, as the company revealed that it was in a K40 billion debt.
The minister disclosed this to the media during an interview soon after meeting ESCOM top management after touring Chichiri Power Station in Blantyre.
“I received a report that ESCOM is struggling with the debt of about K40 billion with banks and suppliers. As a ministry, we want to properly support ESCOM.
“However, they need to give an explanation to us as to why they are in this situation because we have noted that they failed to manage their resources prudently.
“There is a lot of loss of money at ESCOM due to corruption as we have all read in the media,” said Kambala.
He said the new government realises the role of the company to the country’s development, warning however that corruption would not be condoned at the institution.
“The current government is not ready to just watch people steal money from public institutions,” Kambala said.
ESCOM Chief Executive Officer, Allexon Chiwaya said they were looking at the alleged misuse of resources by the company.
“We are investigating all the allegations and we want to get to the root cause so that we never have a repeat of this. Those involved from inside and outside will have to face the law,” Chiwaya said.
He, however, revealed that at the moment, ESCOM was not making profits and as such, struggling to operate.
“We are suffering because of COVID-19 and load shedding as the revenue has gone down by 30 per cent,” said he.
ESCOM was recently implicated in a fuel scam where individuals, most of whom, connected to the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were drawing fuel from the parastatal without rendering any service.
