Al-Varney Rogers, [email protected]
Monrovia – The Liberia Electricity Corporation is at a standstill due to employees’ strike action, which appears to be running for the third day.
The state-run power company is already struggling to provide stable electricity to its customers and the standoff with employees is creating more problems.
Already, some communities are experiencing rampant power outages while some have not received power supply for almost a month. Response from LEC is slow which leaves customers to fend for themselves.
Amid existing challenges, technicians at LEC have abandoned normal working activities.
The striking employees are alleging that the foreign company managing the LEC is falling short of supplying materials, which put them at risk when connecting customers to the power grid.
According to the technicians, the new management is yet to procure meters and other material, so it is sanctioning the introduction of flat rate.
This action on the part of the company could lead to a nationwide power shutdown very soon, they warned.
According to reports, the new management team is refusing to work with the appointed head of operations, causing a spilt in the workforce.
This feud between the new management team and appointees of President George Weah is reportedly responsible for the strike action.
President Weah inherited a three-year Management Service Contract with a two-year renewal option for the management of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) by Ireland-based ESBI Engineering & Facility Management Limited.
The main objectives of the contract include: To create an operationally efficient and profitable utility that is financially viable; to increase capabilities of local staff; to improve quality and reliability of electricity supply and customer service and increase customer base.
At the high level, ESBI would operate and maintain LEC’s generation, transmission and distribution systems throughout Liberia; build capacity of LEC staff to sustain and improve the performance of LEC beyond the duration of the contract.
The firm would also support the government of Liberia in achieving targeted levels of electrification and network expansion, as set from time to time to meet the National Energy Policy mandates; to sustainably improve the commercial, operating, customer service and financial performance of LEC, amongst others.
With a contract in play, this means ESBI manages the corporation while President Weah appoints officials.
Effort by this paper to get LEC to comment on the strike action proved futile as management remains tight-lip on the issue.
LEC employees’ action is seriously affecting customers in Monrovia and its environs.
A customer, Marie Gibson, said she was surprise that it was because of the strike action that put her home out of electricity since Monday.
“It’s hard for LEC to reach us then their workers are protesting, we will be out of current (power) for good,” Gibson said.
She said LEC should find a way to keep power on during the rainy season.
“When it starts to rain LEC will go out that is what they should be fixing not protesting,” Gibson said.
Gibson urged the management to resolve the impasse with the striking employees for normal work to commence.
A resident of Du-port road, Philip Sadyue, said for weeks a pole in his community has been down and LEC is unable to fix the problem.
“LEC is good for nothing, when you call them you can’t get them,” Sadyue said.
“The President (Weah) just gave money to LEC in the recast budget to connect more communities, how can they tell us there are no poles,” he asked.
With limited capacity, the Liberian Interim Management Team (IMT) achieved quite satisfactorily performance during its one-year management of the corporation.
Under the management of the IMT, residential customer’s connections increased by 25,000 in four months and streetlights around Monrovia were increased from 500 to over 2,500.
The number of large users on the network was reportedly doubled with an increased reliability on the network, thereby reducing the frequency and duration of trips on the system.
There were improvements of the wellbeing and capacity of employees, and rationalized salaries were also attested to.
The IMT also improved the image of LEC generally by creating zones to increase response times; reduced the backlog connections by 50% and also reduced legacy debt by at least 70%.