Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Energy expert, Johnston Chikwanda has stressed the need for financial and structural reforms to be undertaken at ZESCO aimed at reducing overhead costs as well broaden the current customer categories in order to spread new tariff structures across broader segments.
Mr Chikwanda notes that the 1 billion United States dollars which ZESCO owes independent power producers as revealed in the latest Auditor General’s report is because the utility company has been buying electricity from independent power producers at a higher tariff than the one at which it is selling the power
He says there is serious need for reforms to be undertaken in order to get ZESCO out of its present quagmire.
And Mr Chikwanda has described as unfortunate and worrying the revelation in the latest Auditor General’s report that ZESCO collected about 200 million kwacha of connection fees from customers but did not connect them.
Mr. Chikwanda says this anomaly has the potential to harm the reputation of the utility company.
He says it is wrong for ZESCO to have collected the connection fees from the customers when circumstances at the utility dictated that it would not be in a position to connect the customers anytime soon.