By Makutu Manneh
The Commission on State-Owned Enterprises has called for a reduction of the salaries of staff of the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) by five percent (5%) due to the latter not meeting the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) targets set for them for the period 2021 to 2022.
The above information was presented to President Adama Barrow by the Commission on Wednesday, 19 June 2024 at State House, when members of the Commission availed the president with a report on NAWEC’s performance contract.
The Commission indicated that NAWEC has only achieved 30% and 20% of the target set for its KPI indicators in 2021 and 2022 respectively, and said they used 2017 as a baseline for these indicators.
It could be recalled that in February 2023, the president led a signing ceremony on the performance contract with SOEs to put an end to underperformance in some of these enterprises.
The SOE Commission led by Chairperson Ousainou Ngum carried out an assessment on the performance of the nation’s only Utility Company for the years 2021-2022. Chairperson Ngum said NAWEC was told to develop strategies to address some of the challenges barring them to performing better. It said they were also advised to take the challenges seriously because electricity is crucial to the lives of the people.
However, NAWEC officials present at the meeting debated that using 2017 as a baseline for assessment was not fair for the Company because they did not have audited accounts for that year and were also faced with the difficulty of transition during 2017.
“Using figures from 2022 would have provided a fairer baseline considering the current situation and systems improvement,” Nani Juwara, the former Managing Director and current Minister of Petroleum and Energy said, adding that a good foundation has been established by NAWEC for better performance. On his part, Mr. Gallo Saidy, the Managing Director of NAWEC, said the recommendations made by the Commission have been noted and he promised to work harder with his team for a better performance of the Utility Company.
On his part, President Barrow said the Commission’s work is a good starting point in holding institutions accountable, adding that this is an important part of his administration’s public sector reform agenda. The president added that institutions should take ownership of their performances and stop making excuses, and said he recognized NAWEC’s recent efforts and instructed the Commission to implement its recommendations but to also take into account the strides NAWEC has made in recent times.
Seedy Keita, the Minister of Finance, commended the Commission and said NAWEC has a significant economic impact on the country’s economy which “affects the cost of living of the people’’ by posing fiscal risks. He therefore said that everyone must support this transformation.
