11 April, 2008

Sierra Express, Freetown

NPA outlines 10 Teams for Effective Management of Electricity

The National Power Authority (NPA) management has outlined 10 new teams, otherwise known as committees, that will be responsible to carry out the functions of the entity for effective delivery of services from time to time.

Last week, the General Manager Dr. Zubairu Ahmed Kalokoh disclosed to the media that they are setting up the committees as a follow up to the President's vision for effective distribution of electricity and better management of NPA in the country.

According to the NPA General Manager, the first team set up is the Debt Management Team. This is to review all NPA debts accrued by the former engineers to the tune of Le 23.4 bn and how to pay them. Following this, there is also the Investigatory Team, designed to investigate how the debts were accrued and report to management.

Dr. Ahmed Kalokoh said management’s aims and objective with this process is to ensure NPA becomes a new delivery service provider. Added to this, the Statistical Team will collect relevant information data and statistics of NPA to respond to critical issues. The statistical data analyses NPA's information.

Over the years, it was noted apparently clear that NPA's property was unaccounted for. Therefore the new management says they are coming up with the Property Management Team to assess and evaluate all NPA property such as land, buildings, vehicles, plants, machinery etc.  With this initiative, the entity will be aided by a Property Management Data Base Team. This is intended to evaluate NPA property information and analyse the value and cost for sale or purchase etc.

Prior to this development, the people of Freetown had suffered great electricity cuts from NPA because of fuel problems. Now a Fuel Management Team has been set up to primarily buy fuel. It is designed to centralize the purchase of fuel, audit its purchase before it leaves the seller and before it goes to the machines. To ensure transparency, the Fuel Auditing Team backs up the purchase of fuel to ensure transparency and accountability.

It was disclosed that NPA has suffered because of poor misuse of revenue resources. Therefore, the new Revenue Management Team will properly be decentralized and equipped with recourse persons that will manage the team to ensure NPA's funds are evenly collected and distributed.

As the management values the consumer, the Consumer Service Team is designed to receive complaints from the public and determine how to settle them to improve the customer service provider relationship.

Other important teams set up are the Consumer Data Base Team responsible to collect data of consumption rate; NPA Emergency Team responsible to handle all catastrophic situations like power cuts, oil contamination, cable sparks etc., in collaboration with the Office of National Security, ONS, police, army, etc., and the Procurement Team.

According to Dr. Kalokoh, women and participatory democracy were introduced for the first time. Electricity in Sierra Leone has been a major problem to sustain the country. Irrespective of the fact that the country has vast potentials to generate electricity from hydro plants, yet the attention diverted to this vital sector has always been minimal. This has contributed to under development in the country as major industries, factories and companies that require mass energy to generate power supply and effect production of goods and services could not do so and eventually had to down their working tools.

However, a bolt from the blues came suddenly with the government of the All People Congress (APC) when the new minister. Hafsatu Kabba and her new General Manager Dr. Zubairu Ahmed Kalokoh took over as heads of the Ministry of Energy and Power. Four months after their take over of management. Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital saw glaring changes as residents could be afforded with power supply in their homes.

Whether or not this could be sustained in future is doubtful. But Dr. Zubairu Ahmed Kalokoh the General Manager jumped quickly to assure as this question was asked in an excusive interview.

Responding to press inquiries Dr. Kalokoh said the NPA will soon roll out plans that will be implemented for better management and service delivery of electricity in the country. The plan, known as 10 Teams rather than committees, include:

1.       The department’s Management Team.  This comprises of 5 persons and is charged with responsibility to review all outstanding debts NPA engineers have entered into and to find out how these could be paid, about Le 23.4 on.

2.       Investigatory Team.  This team will investigate all NPA debts, who what and why debts were being incurred and submit a report for prompt action by the management. Prior to the setting of the team, it understood that the Le 23.4 bn debts were incurred when NPA was producing little electricity. This raises the question why would they have to incur huge debts.

3.       Statistical Data Team.  This will collect all relevant data and statistics of national power authority to harmonies use of its in formation and to respond to critical issues. The aim is to analyze the information and make some out of it.

4.       Property Management Team.  For the first time, the properties of the National Power Authority would be determined, assessed and evaluated in costs, estimate etc. This team will focus on land, building, vehicles, plants and other machineries, cables, wires etc.

Property Management Database Team.  This team will work with the previous one in that it takes all information of NPA property to determine which one could be advertised for sale, repaired or maintained or disposed of.

5.       Fuel Team.  This team is mainly responsible to buy fuel. It is designed to centralize the purchasing of fuel, audits its purchase before it leaves the seller and before it goes into the machines to prevent decontamination. This audits the work of the fuel team to ensure transparency and accountability that the right amount of fuel is purchase and supplied.

6.       Revenue Management Team.  As the power base of the NPA, revenue has been central to NPA management issues. Unlike the present circumstance, in the past NPA revenue base was being mismanaged with just one main deciding what to do. In the new dispensation it is now subject to thorough auditing. The head of the commercial department according to reliable sources do not control the area any more. This is because the new administration meets the public to know how the department works and how much it is generating.

7.       Consumers Service Team.  The new management has introduced a consumer service Team to receive complaints. According to the G.M the customers is first or the boss Women for the first time have been included into some or their teams to create team spirit, improve quality of service and to communicate well with the consumer. Part of the initiative is inject new lives, alert the public and carries a sensitization campaign for attitudinal change towards NPA.

8.       Data Base: Following the Consumer Service Team.  NPA has also thought of introducing, a consumer data base. This collects pertinent information about the consumer and helps him or her settle his or her problem with NPA. For instance, the case of a narrated mosque story which had to pay Le 3 million debts to NPA and was resolved by reaching out a payment arrangement due to the respect for consumer supplier relationship and also religious beliefs. Under the new management of Dr. Zubairu Kalokoh, the consumer stands out to benefits.

9.       Emergency Team.  For the first time an NPA Emergency team is being set up to handle all electrical emergencies or outbreak. As its job is related to security, they are going to work with the office of National Security at state house. According to Dr. Zubairu Kalokoh, the country will be best served if the team handles the catastrophic events itself rather than it becomes a holistic affair of government. It will collaborate and communicate with the police, army and other government agencies. On the issue of the Black hall Road incident quite recently in which many public officials suggested the supply of fuel to solve the problem, Dr. Kalokoh said such miscalculations could lead to a major break down and effect the problem bigger as it was later discovered that it was not fuel being the problem at all. As NPA is currently on the move the new GM says he is using the staff to do it.

10.   Procurement Team.  As 70% of government budget is procurement related, NPA says it is setting up a procurement team to over see the purchasing and supply of it equipment and other service. The initiative has been welcomed by the members of staffs who are quite excited about the new boss on the chair. In all of the above, the nature of NPA could be said has drastically changed as participatory democracy in management now includes all staff, especially women in decision making process.

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