Trying times for BPC
As its transformational Masa 2020 comes to an end Tariff increases meant to provide revenue for BPC- Moagi
The country’s monopoly power supplier - Botswana Power Corporation ( BPC)’ s primary objective through its MASA 2020 Strategy, is not to either downsize the number of employees or depart from its strategy.
This is despite the fact that since its introduction, the strategy claimed the heads of many across the board including that of the former Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Stephan Schwarzfischer and some of his management team as well as board members.
In 2016, BPB brought in a German national, Schwarzfischer as part of a five year transformational strategy to realise BPC’s vision of being a leading power utility in the region by 2020. The Strategy which is in its final year seeks to turn the Corporation into a profitable and efficient entity intended to turn around the business operation.
When launching, the strategy, it was revealed that it was anchored on five themes; financial turnaround, organizational efficiency and power supply, service delivery and SHERQ culture. The Corporation is yet to realize its dream as it is still to operate in full potential.
This week in Parliament, Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Lefhoko Moagi said the primary objective of retrenchments by the BPC under the MASA 2020 strategy was not to downsize the number of employees. Further, that the restructuring was carried out to improve the Corporation’s effectiveness in service delivery. This exercise resulted in the need to exit some staff members whose skills were no longer relevant to enable the Corporation to bring new talent.
Moagi said the Corporation continuously reviews its manning levels to align to business requirements to ensure service delivery; as a result the increase in manning levels was from 2082 during the financial year 2017/ 18 to 2177 in the financial year 2019/ 20.
Moagi said, “I would like to advice that BPC is not departing from the MASA 2020 strategy, which provided for outsourcing of cleaning, security and fleet services”.
The Corporation outsources other services such as maintenance, meter installation and inspection to supplement its existing capacity as and when the need arises. Outsourcing of these services is not a permanent arrangement as this is only done to augment existing capacity in the short term to enhance service delivery.
He said the outsourcing of some services is mainly done as a temporary measure in addressing maintenance backlogs and augmentation of the existing employees during inclement weather conditions in order to meet the turnaround times in restoring supply to customers. Meter installation and inspection is also outsourced to address customer connection turnaround times.
Moagi further explained that cleaning, security and fleet services were outsourced permanently for efficiency and effectiveness. Any other outsourcing is a temporary intervention to enhance service delivery as and when necessary. No job is rendered redundant through this intervention as this is not a permanent arrangement.
BPC will continue to review its manning levels as the network is being expanded to ensure optimal manning levels and up to standard customer service.