From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Two staff of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Ibrahim Salisu and Olubolaji Damilola are reportedly on the run after they were indicted of committing an infraction and the matter reported to the police.
Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive officer of the company, Dr. Henry Ajagbawa, disclosed this yesterday, at a press conference to mark his 100 days in office.
He explained that the case was handed over to the police for further investigation after the disciplinary committee found them guilty of contravening the company’s policy.
He further disclosed that the company no longer has tolerance for corrupt practices, adding that it has instituted 109 policies to guide the staff on the steps to take to get the job done.
Dr. Ajagbawa announced that the company was prioritising the customers and would ensure that they get power when available, urging the customers to pay promptly in order to serve them better. He also said that infrastructural decay is a major problem in the sector.
“One of the inhibitors to performance in the organisation was the level of infrastructural decay and lack of work tools. This resulted to suboptimal performance across the company over the years. The board and management quickly took steps to commence the corrective process as a panacea to elicit and encourage performance.
“A fleet of over 130 vehicles were abandoned in a state of disrepair and disuse. The new management has since revamped over 80 vehicles to service the operations of the company.
“Network optimisation is one of the critical pillars to migrate to an era of customer-centrism. The new management has embarked on feeder realignment, not only to match regulatory imperative but as a fulcrum of providing the excellent services we promised our customers. The company will also ensure that the customers get good services but I will urge them to also pay their bills so that we can serve better.
“The heightened level of customer dissatisfaction has been masked for so long but now has to be confronted head-on. We exist because of the customer and are not deluded that customers do not have choices. In this regard, we noted the high level of service disconnection of many areas of our franchise from the grid for many years.
“Management is now working closely with communities to understand the situation better with a view to designing and implementing unique solutions to each community. In this regard, we respectfully call on all communities that have received the worst of our services over the years to please come forward for dialogue on how to quickly address their concerns, to enable us to serve them better,” he said.
He stated that the company has engaged the services of Forensic Auditors to audit the number of meters supplied by the federal government to the company, saying that the said meters supplied by the government under the National Mass Metering Programme cannot be accounted for at the moment.
Besides, he said 10 staff of the company had been dismissed for engaging in illegal activities, just as he disclosed that BEDC has commenced performance driven environment where staff are rewarded based on performance, adding that this has reflected in the monthly revenue collection of the company.
“This reflected on the collection growth of the company. In September, we collected N5.5 billion and it climbed to N6.2 in October and N6.8 in November. This shows some level of customers satisfaction,” Ajagbawa stated.
