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From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The new Managing Director/Chief Executive, Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Dr Henry Ajagbawa, has said he would call for a forensic audit into the company’s past management account with a view to cleaning up the rot in the system.
He disclosed this in Benin on Tuesday while briefing reporters on his proposed plans to turn the company around.
Dr Ajagbawa said that his administration which will last for six months but subject to extension by the federal government, will be open to all with the view of delivering efficient service to BEDC’s franchise states, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo and Delta.
“We are conducting forensic audit in BEDC like I encouraged Port Hacourt DISCO to conduct a forensic audit.
“There is going to be openess in the running of our operation and we are going to deliver excellent services,” he assured.
Dr Ajagbawa said the alleged N750 million lost in the month of July was as a result of an economic downturn on one of the company’s major electricity consumer but not on the court case as claimed by its immediate past management.
“We often hear the saying that statistics can be used to tell lies if interrogate further.
“I don’t want to venture into this kind of conversation through what I did or what I did not do but since you have brought it up, I will address it squarely.
“It is irresponsible for any leader to make allusion that is based on falsehood using statistics. It is grossly so irresponsible for any leader to do that. Therefore, let us break down the figures. I was here early in July, we had several ups and downs.
“I was out, she was in, I was out, she was in and finally out but that has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the reduction in collection for the month.
“As a matter of fact, BEDC unlike some other places, they have a few customers that have substantial collections, what we called a single man risk .
“One customer generates about one billion per month. We collect about N1 billion or N1.2 billion from that customer on a monthly basis but on this particular month, in July when I came in, I visited the customer as one of the biggest customers of the DISCO, I went there myself on relationship building visit to see what they are doing and how we can support them further.
“On that visit, the customer told us the problem they are facing. The problem related to production and slum in the economy and because production has to go down a bit, because of the slums in the economy, they are unable to produce and therefore their production goes down.
“It is a steel company and what is their raw materials? A steel company? What is their raw materials? Scraps and rot of electricity. Production slum, electricity consumption slum. The bills they pay for that month was N300 million or less.
“So, the N750 million reduction in collections was as a result of one customer who normally pays N1.2 billion but suddenly slum to about N300m for the month of July,” he explained.
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Dr Ajagbawa stated that for the workers to put in their best in delivering effective service to their customers, their welfare has been made paramount by the company so they have no reasons to fail in their jobs.
“We tend to focus, especially on how we cam improve service to our people. We know the level of service has much to be desired and there is much to be done.
“The bases for the change are things that are not proper and one of the things we have noticed since we assumed duty is lack of consistency in policy process and system as it is an all comers game.
“The board has approved policies which would be used to run BEDC and our focal point is to have policies that are entrench in the system.
“We are trying to build an enduring organisation that is resting on policies, systems and when people come to work they do things in disciplined manner.
“To make things work the board approved the salary increase of staff between five to 70 per cent graduating at various level of staff. The salary will become operation by end of September. And it must be paid at the last working day of the month
“One of our pillar is creating the environment for our staff to thrive and it is necessary to provide an enabling environment for them to excel.
“We have seen the workers ability to work were limited due to lack of means of transportation as over 50 vehicle have been grounded . We are going to repair them so that the workers can transport themselves and equipment to their working place to repair faulting equipment.
Reacting to the issue of metering, the new managing director said customers who have their money to buy their meters, should do so as their money will be given back to them subsequently
“Federal government has kick-started the metering of customers, when I headed Porth Hacourt DISCO, I installed the 79,000 meter provided by government but BEDC is still struggling to allocate the meters that was allocated to them since last year and we still have outstanding.
“There is another financing arrangement where government will provide one million meters and we would pursue that.
“We want to meter our customers and there are other windows where customers can come and buy meter. And BEDC would refund them through credits months by months.
“We would provide meter through the federal government window and other windows and we are in a hurry to meter our customers,” he said.
