Privatizing NAWEC
By Mohammed L Sillah and Mbaye B sarr
Sep 21, 2006, 17:03 |
The fact is that the company is highly dysfunctional, inefficient and ridden with corruption. Because it generates lot of cash monthly, it attracts lot of Government attraction and often acts as a milking cow for the regime. Salaries of members of the Armed Forces, sources of funding political campaigns and all what not are often siphoned in from NAWEC’s financial resources. Widespread thievery of fuel, vehicle spare parts, cables, etc has been reported among the company’s staff. The company also serves as source of employment for favorites of politicians and other influential persons leaving NAWEC dangerously over-bloated with staff. Because of the public’s sensitivity to the problems of electricity and water supplies, especially in the urban and peri-urban areas of the country, politicians are naturally concerned about NAWEC and have often used it as a tool for electoral and other political campaigns. The Jammeh regime has repeatedly promised people that the problems of the chronic blackouts would be done away with soon. Only months back, the APRC’ National Mobilizer promised voters that by end of July 2006, blackouts would “be a thing of the past.” They have in fact intensified since then. That promise was neither the first, nor the second of third time Jammeh and prominent members of his regime had been making public promises to end the persistent electricity black outs in the urban and peri-urban areas of the country.
Another area of concern has been the procurement of equipment for NAWEC. The Kotu Power Station is filled with huge generators and transformers that had been wrongly procured and cannot fit into the system of the available grid because President Jammeh must decide what, when and from were to purchase any expensive piece of machinery.
But mark you that all these problems are only of the power supply system in the urban areas, now a days there are none really to speak of in the provinces. The networks are not connected to the Kotu Power Station, which is the country’s main one which serves, or better say under-serves the Greater Banjul Area, GBA. They consist of five provincial centers served by stand-alone electricity sub-systems which produce power well below the existing demands. By themselves the five sub-systems are not financially self-sustainable and depend on revenues generated in GBA as subsidy. So as can be seen from the above, the country has no proper national grid system to talk of. Recently, however, government has launched a so-called Rural Electrification Project that they promised will be commissioned by the end of the year. The project aims to establish six power stations with 11kv transmission system. Even if this valuable and highly needed project was to be completed as promised, it is doubtful if it can be sustainable under NAWEC’s present tariff structure, giving the extreme levels of income poverty prevalent in rural communities of The Gambia.
NAWEC also provides water supply and sewerage services. As can be expected, the water supply service is also beset by crippling crisis that leave most people connected with supply system without any water at any one time. Most Gambians however do not have access to pipe-born water supply.
Even those known to be opposed to privatization as a matter of principle do not seem to mind much if the divesture of NAWEC will improve the system and make the services more accessible and affordable. The question is if there is sufficient political will for this, and if the process of privatization can be done transparently and accountably. For the first there are reasons to doubt that the Jammeh regime is ready for a wholesale and downright privatization of national institutions that offer parallel, instant and less controversial opportunity for siphoning of public resources. Local and government auditors can be easily dealt with but IMF-sponsored auditors play a different ball game! But they pry more into central bank and government accounts than into the accounts of public enterprises.
Also, for a regime whose head rubs shoulders with internationally notorious and wanted criminals like Victor Booth, Babanding Futanke Sisoho, the late von Kloberg, just to mention a few, portioning out and selling potentially lucrative national assets neatly, without any kickbacks, must be indeed unthinkable. A recent example rings the alarm bells noisily. A set of three 6,8 MVA generators were recently commissioned at the newly established power plant in Brikama. Almost no one knew who the owners of the generators were and on what conditions they were procured. It was only after the commissioning ceremony that some started to have a clue of the transactions surrounding their presence. Just before its arrival, National Assembly Members routinely passed a bill that facilitated that made it possible for the Lebanese owner to generate and sell power to NAWEC. A similar arrangement had established Gampower, a mysteriously owned private company that sells power generated by a smaller generator brought in about three years ago. Few know anything about the structure and capital layout of the company even after several years of activity in the country. Shortly after the company’s generator was commissioned President Jammeh declared that he was taking over the energy and power ministerial portfolio in order to guarantee that the “contract with the owners will be honored.” In this light we begin to understand why some observers point out that more debate on the divestiture of valuable national assets should be encouraged.
|
