PNG Power Must Recover K277m, Maru Tells New Board

PNG Power Ltd must recover K277 million owed by government agencies and State-owned enterprises, State Enterprises Minister Richard Maru says.

He has given the company’s new board three months to begin delivering results and address the financial pressures facing the power utility.

 PNG Power Must Recover K277m, Maru Tells New Board

Mr Maru said the outstanding debts were among the immediate matters requiring attention.

He said some government agencies and State-owned enterprises had not paid their PNG Power accounts for more than 12 months.

Another major concern is the loss of electricity revenue through theft and technical problems.

Mr Maru said those losses amounted to about 26 per cent of PNG Power’s sales.

He said the board needed to take firm action to recover outstanding payments and reduce losses.

“Our immediate priority is to recover all our outstanding arrears. As of today, government departments and the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) owe PPL K277 million. Some of them have not paid PPL for over 12 months. In addition, PPL is losing 26 percent of all its sales from theft and technical losses. The question is: what is the Board and Management doing about this? The new Board must do better. We must have a very aggressive campaign to collect all our outstanding arrears,” he said.

The National Executive Council has appointed five new directors to the board — Noel Mobiha, Tauvasa Tanuvasa, John Wau, Lorna McPherson and Clement Waine.

Marlen Brunskill has been reappointed.

Mr Maru said the Government was also looking at changing the ownership of PNG Power’s loss-making B and C centres.

He said a submission would be made to Cabinet on the proposed sale of the centres to provincial governments and private-sector operators.

The minister said the money raised could be used to reduce PNG Power’s debts and finance new projects.

He said the Government would also consider partial privatisation of the Port Moresby, Ramu and Gazelle centres.

“The funds from the sale of these centres will help us retire our debts and look at some innovative ways to raise funds to improve the balance sheet position of PPL. We will also propose to the Government to retire some of its debts and prepare three Centres – Port Moresby, Ramu and Gazelle for partial privatisation. This sale is important because the funds we generate from the sale will be used to fund new projects like hydros that will help generate revenue for PPL,” Maru added.