Parliament’s public accounts committee this week heard how Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) employees siphoned over M34 million from the energy utility.
The employees are alleged to have directly collected debts from LEC’s customers on behalf of the company and kept them for their personal use.
Actually, this kind of graft is not unique to LEC. Energy and power utilities the world over are targets of financial mismanagement.
Let us put this into perspective. Energy is central to socio-economic activities. It powers machines in all sectors of the economy – from agriculture and households to manufacturing and transportation. Those individuals and institutions that control access to the sources, transformation and distribution of energy hold significant power.
The key role that the energy sector plays in society and economy make it vulnerable to corruption. Individuals in the public sector may find opportunities for personal gain due to the powers they hold over access to, and transformation and distribution of energy, including procurement for the development, operation and maintenance of energy system components.
The energy sector is a prime target for, and source of corruption, in part because of the time-sensitive nature of energy resources, the possibilities of generating considerable economic rents from energy extraction, transformation and use, as well as the need for large capital investments and a central role of government agencies to oversee virtually all aspects of the energy sector – whether privatised or not.
Lack of transparency in decisions and accounting methods, as well as lack of effectiveness of legal systems may help hide and sanction abuse of power by decision makers. Efforts to reduce corruption need to simultaneously consider each of these issues in order to be effective.
It is all good and appreciated that the parliament committee has brought this in the open, but what we need most importantly is swift and tough action by the relevant authorities so that the culprits are brought to book and held accountable.
