BPC Loses P10 Million Annually To Vandalism
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Monday August 27, 2018 13:44
When giving an overview of Instant Quotation, Schwarzfischer expressed concern over vandalism of their properties, which he said is a nationwide problem. He said normally the lawbreakers target electrical transformers to steal copper cables.
“We had an incident lately in Francistown where criminals took an expensive small transformer. The problem is escalating and more people seem to be joining the stealing bandwagon.” Schwarzfischer indicated that vandalism does not only affect BPC financially but also inconveniences customers. He said replacing cables is expensive and takes a lot of time for them to be availed because they are usually procured from abroad.
He added that they are going to join forces with law enforcement bodies to root out the escalating crime. He put out an alert about fraudsters who take advantage of their customers due to the massive quest for quotations noting that fraudsters come with fake letters claiming they were issued contracts by BPC so that they can extort more money out of consumers.
He, however, urged customers to always confirm with the corporation before giving anyone their money.
Schwarzfisher said BPC used to import electricity worth P1.4 billion outside the country and has since reduced that to P600 million as they have increased their local production of electricity. In addition, he said BPC has improved viability of Morupule B from 60% to 82% of electric power production. The CEO also noted that they have also reduced faults at BPC in order to increase efficiency in the corporation. When giving operational overview, BPC central and northern region customer service manager Germinah Modimoopelo said the purpose of the launch was to improve service delivery by reducing the turnaround time when customers seek quotations and electricity connections.
She said they have rolled out Instant Quotation services to 10 work centres around the country, with an additional work centre expected for rollout in the second half of the year.
Modimoopelo disclosed that locations currently offering Instant Quotation are Gaborone, Molepolole, Mochudi, Francistown, and Serowe.
She revealed that the Francistown centre received 570 applications between the periods of April to June this year adding that 360 Instant Quotations were generated and of the 360 applicants, 345 payments were made instantly. She added that in Francistown, exploration took place for instant Connection on 74 service projects and 21% were connected within 24 hours and only five percent were connected outside of 21 days.
“74% were connected within 21 days and if not due to material challenge and other issues this express service is highly possible and doable and thus where BPC aspired to go,” she said. Modimoopelo said some of the challenges associated with offering Instant Quotations include GIS data and network, customers not having plot numbers and lack of revenue offices. He urged customers to always be prepared before application efforts from express service.
The service is rendered futile if the customer is not ready for something, which they have observed as a concern with statistics at 30% to 70% across the country with projects delayed by customers.