Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) Chief Executive Officer Kamkwamba Kumwenda Monday stormed some business premises in Blantyre and accused some companies of buying electricity from parallel structures.
Kumwenda alleged that one of the companies has been dubiously buying electricity from Escom and Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) employees for a long time, charging that it owes Escom over K60 million.
Escom Public Relations Manager Innocent Chitosi confirmed the development, saying they have a long list of companies and individuals who are engaging in the fraud.
He said Escom has on its radar respectable companies and individuals including politicians, their own employees and employees of Egenco.
“We have huge volumes of data detailing companies and individuals who have been involved in this malpractice. From where we are standing, no one will escape from this drag net. We are in such a fortunate position that those involved are coming up from their hide-outs, hands in the air.
“We are mopping through the depth and width of these evil cartels and it is such as exciting time for us because we know what caused part of the hemorrhage,” he said.
Meanwhile, Escom has, in a statement, said it will, from next month, embark on a door-to-door meter account verification and revenue protection exercise to appreciate the challenges its customers face in order to enhance service delivery.
“We urge our customers who suspect or know that their meter functionality was tampered with to declare such issues. Those who do not declare and only get identified during the exercise will be named in the media,” the statement reads.
Escom claims to be losing K12 billion to fraud every year.
