70 per cent of govt agencies connected on prepaid metres
What you need to know:
Connected. At least 327 of government ministries, departments and agencies are now connected on the prepaid metering system.
Up to 327 of the 469 government ministries, departments and agencies’ postpaid electricity metres have over the last three years been converted to prepaid metres, according to two separate documents seen by Daily Monitor.
This is meant to sort out persistent delays by many government departments and agencies to pay for the power they consume even though such bills are provided for in their respective budgets.
“Umeme has scheduled to undertake further retrofitting of GoU [Government of Uganda] entities’ accounts,” reads one of the documents now before the House Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises.
The other document, authored by electricity distributor, Umeme, refers to the issue as ‘smart metering conversions’.
In the past, failure by some government departments and agencies to clear their power bills has resulted in the distribution utility not remitting to Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) the dues for power purchases.
According to a 2016 report by the Auditor General, although the government annually allocates funds to government departments and agencies for electricity bills, the funds are sometimes insufficient to pay for all the power consumed during a particular financial year.
As a result, outstanding bills are accrued and [are] paid in subsequent financial years.
In case a power distribution company delays to pay UETCL, the transmitter will in turn delay to pay the electricity generation companies for their energy.
And if the generation companies are not paid, they could turn off their plants, resulting in darkness and prompt some businesses to turn to expensive diesel.
Additionally, UETCL will not remit the levy due to the Rural Electrification Agency for some of its activities.
Waiting for approval
Umeme is, according to the document, waiting for clearance by Defence
Ministry and State House to install prepaid metres on their premises.
There appears though to be reluctance on the part of the Defence Ministry and State House, “for security reasons”.
The Defence Ministry and the Uganda Police Force are government’s major electricity consumers, going by their paid and unpaid bills.
Meanwhile, there are claims some prepayment metres installed on some police installations have either been vandalised or bypassed, a claim this newspaper could not immediately verify.
