Rev. Baxton Maulidi
* He notices some accountability responses from the two parastatals on three fronts:
* MERA expressing its concerns raised from public complaints over poor service delivery;
* ESCOM responding to the regulator by taking responsibility of the issues raised;
* and ESCOM acknowledging the public’s response to the leaked internal communication from MERA
By Duncan Mlanjira
All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Economic Justice Accountability Champion in Malawi, Rev. Baxton Maulidi, has applauded Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) for being proactive in censuring poor customer service by Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM).
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Rev. Maulidi takes note that MERA, which had been receiving numerous complaints from various customers’ “bad experience of ESCOM service delivery”, amplified the concerns to ESCOM through a letter dated January 13 — which was meant to be an internal industry communication between the two government parastatals.
Maulidi observed that from the notice that ESCOM management issued to the public, assuring of the steps it was taking taken to address the concerns MERA raised, it was obvious that MERA’s communication to ESCOM Chief Executive Officer (CEO), was leaked to the public and went viral on social media.
“It should be noted that ESCOM’s assurance to its customers on public domain was a direct response to the reactions that MERA’s leaked communication generated on social media; because ESCOM indicated they had already responded to MERA’s concerns raised in the internal communication between the two.”
“The letter that MERA issued to ESCOM must have been leaked to the public domain by a whistleblower, probably fearing that the ESCOM management might hide the concerns raised under its carpet.
“But it was very impressive to learn that, much as ESCOM had already responded to MERA’s strong warning, the management still went ahead to report to its customers of the measures taken to address the shortfalls that had been frustrating its consumers,” says Rev. Maulidi.
As a recap, in the internal industry letter from MERA CEO, Henry Kachaje to his counterpart, Kamkwamba Kumwenda — that was leaked to the public last week and went viral on social media — indicated that it was a serious warning from MERA to the public power utility company.
MERA indicated that it had been observing ESCOM’s continuing poor customer services over some time having received numerous complaints from various customers concerning bad experience of service delivery.
They included customers being kept waiting for long periods of time before being attended to when using ESCOM customer care platforms to report faults and that at times customers are completely ignored.
Complaints also reached MERA that ESCOM call centre staff are rude to customers and that some faults staff are demanding money to rectify faults or connect electricity to new customers.
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And having been leaked to the public, ESCOM management issued a public statement, explaining they had taken note of the serious warning in their response to MERA done 3 days later.
ESCOM management assured the public that they “regret the Customer Call Centre’s inappropriate handling of customers seeking fault clearance, delayed fault clearing and new electricity connections, reports of bribery, and corruption involving staff members”.
They also indicated that they had expressed the same regrets to MERA and detailed measures taken to ensure their implementation; that include:
* a warning issued to all ESCOM Limited employees on January 16 over the inappropriate handling of customers and indeed indulgence in bribery and corruption, among others;
* Investigating the reports of bribery and that the perpetrators will be dealt with accordingly;
* setting up an internal steering committee that is developing sustainable and robust customer-centric and robust faults-clearing systems to supplement existing ones;
* hiring contractors to speed up new electricity connections and stepping up procurement of construction materials such as meters to clear the backlog of applications for new electricity connections;
* Stepping up have stepped up ESCOM digital media campaign against bribery and corruption complementing the toll-free line 847 (TNM/Airtel) for reporting such vices.
Thus Rev. Maulidi says, as the AACC’s economic justice & accountability champion in Malawi, he notices some accountability responses from the two parastatals on three fronts — MERA expressing its concerns raised from the public complaints; ESCOM responding to the regulator by taking responsibility of the issues raised; and ESCOM acknowledging the public’s response to the leaked internal communication from MERA.
“That’s the accountability we need in our society if the public is to be provided with the best service delivery by public institutions,” says Rev. Maulidi. “From the responses on social media after MERA’s letter was leaked, it was obvious that the public was surprised that a parastatal was censuring its fellow parastatal.
“This is new, so to say, probably because such occurrences are kept as they are — ‘internal communication’, and are kept under wraps. I believe this is a learning process and there is need for all public institutions to let the public know what is happening internally rather than keeping them to themselves.
“As AACC’s economic justice & accountability champion in Malawi, I suggest that the checks and balances we have noted between MERA and ESCOM, should apply amongst all public institutions for us to appreciate that they are watching over one another.”
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