Anti-Corruption Commission exposes millions of Birr in missing property,
embezzlement at EEPCo
 

38 mln birr obsolete material stored

By Tamiru Geda

 Survey conducted by the Federal Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission found that the Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation, EEPCo, has stocks of obsolete materials it has never been able to sell or write off.
According to the report submitted by Dr. Menale Arega, team leader of the survey, spares parts worth some 23,531,572.77 birr, vehicle spare parts worth 8,987,399 birr, hardware and plumbing materials worth 1,735860.38 birr, stationeries worth 2,138,448.56 birr, and electrical spare parts worth 1,788,890.37 birr were found stocked idly in the corporation’s warehouse.
Concerned officials of the corporation admitted that it not necessary to keep these obsolete/outdated material in stores and said will take the necessary measure to remove them as per the procedures.
EEPCo disclosed that it has currently sold various vehicles worth over 10 million birr, and assured that the measure will continue.
The second and most important finding of the survey that took about nine months, was embezzlement both in terms of material and money in different departments of the corporation.
At the head office and warehouses property belonging to the corporations that could not be accounted for totaled 272,697 birr and only 30,225 birr was recouped from insurance. The main warehouse could not account for property worth 582,472.28 birr
At the district offices, 46 different cases of wastage worth 1,5 million birr, were discovered, of which only 248,607.27 birr has been recovered. The total loss of the corporation is hence estimated at 2,083,104.17 birr.
Many complaints were aired following the presentation, including Mugher cement factory’s complaint on EEPCo’s recurring power interruptions during the Gilgel Gibe hydroelectric power connection to the main power system.
Ato Mihiret Debebe, general manager of EEPCo gracefully accepted the complaint and said that solution should be devised to ensure that such heavy industries that rely on continuous power supply are not affected by power interruption.
With regards to the unnecessary materials that are purchased, the survey found, it is due to lack of efficient manpower in the districts that lead the corporation to such wastage of money.
Another complaint heard was the delay in purchases through tender. The process for the release of the allocated budget is so long that many purchases are undertaken at the end of the budget year leaving no time to evaluate the project properly. The concerned officials are first reluctant to release the budget and later very eager to spend the money so as not to give it back to the government treasury.
Hence, for instance contractors are sometimes awarded projects without following the conventional technical and financial evaluation procedures.
Such actions create good opportunity for corruption, not to mention failures of the projects in terms of completion and quality.