Board wants four key Escom posts filled
Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) board has written Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) to expedite recruitment of executive management posts.
For over a year now, Escom has been operating without a full executive management team and, currently, key management positions of chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer, director of human resources and administration, and director of procurement remain vacant.
But a commentator John Kapito, who is executive director of Consumer Association of Malawi (Cama), has taken a swipe at OPC for interfering with recruitment process at the State-owned company, arguing that the Escom Act only gives powers to the board to recruit its managers, and that OPC has no such mandate.
In an interview yesterday, Kapito said: “The Tonse Alliance administration had promised Malawians that it would let boards be independent and run parastatals, but what we are witnessing is to the contrary as OPC is usurping the power of the boards, making them powerless.”
In a letter dated October 8 2021, which we have seen, addressed to Comptroller of Statutory Corporations Nwazi Nthambala, Escom board chairperson Frederick Changaya indicated that only two positions—out of six that were supposed to be undertaken—were filled as of September 2021.
Reads the letter, in part: “Escom is thus operating without a full complement of executive management. Whilst these gaps are understandable and inevitable as it is necessary to restore the positive ethical outlook that Escom used to represent, the board requests government and shareholder to expedite the processes in finalising recruitment of the first four executive management posts.”
In a brief e-mailed response this week, spokesperson for Department of Statutory Corporation at OPC, Headwick Banda, said all matters surrounding the recruitments are receiving due attention and will be finalised in due course.
When contacted for comment, chairperson for the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change Welani Chilenga observed that there are a number of things that are going wrong at Escom and that the committee has scheduled a meeting with officials from Escom on Tuesday next week to discuss the issues.
“The problems at Escom are just too many and the delay to recruit the executive team is just one. There are also wrangles over single buying licence by Power Market Limited, and we will be engaging them [Escom] next week so that as a committee we can appreciate the challenges the company is going through and how Parliament can assist,” said Chilenga.
In its letter, the Escom board also informed OPC that it resolved not to renew employment contracts of director of legal and company secretary and director of system and market operator.
And, also, that it has proposed creation of an additional executive management post of director of transmission, which also needs to be filled.
“The board gives assurance to government of its on-going efforts to establish a viable and efficient Escom organisational structure and a lean staff complement commensurate with its mandate and scope of activities,
“In this regard, the board is overseeing two key human resources processes namely, Functional Review and Human Resources Audit,” reads the letter.
At a time when the public was waiting for results of interviews conducted early this year for the positions of CEO and other managers, the Department of Statutory Corporations in July re-advertised in the newspapers the post of CEO and chief operating officer.
Changaya and Escom spokesperson Innocent Chitosi promised to respond to our questionnaire, but did not do so by press time.
