The cost of a bad deal

Dear Editor, 

It was interesting to read your article on the investor threatening legal action against Government and the E.P.C. 

Reading through the article, I was quite surprised at what this company is getting from selling solar energy to E.P.C. 

USD33cents per unit is equivalent to 86sene based on current exchange rates.

That is ridiculous. If the current electricity tariff is 83 sene and E.P.C is buying it from these so called investors helping the people of Samoa at 86 sene, then simple mathematics says that for every unit of electricity sold, E.P.C has to find 3sene from somewhere to make up for the shortfall. 

This doesn’t take into account all the other overheads that E.P.C has to pay for.

At the end of the day, E.P.C will probably raise the tariff again and the poor customer will lose out because of these dodgy contracts. 

Now where are the management accountants, the lawyers and the regulator when this deal was being negotiated. 

If I’m not mistaken, this was the same company that was pushing the government to sign this contract a few years back and there was probably some political influence in getting this deal signed in the first place.

 I’m sure these investors are thinking they landed the big one with this deal because I don’t think any other power company would have agreed to these terms. 

These investors are so greedy that they don’t care if the people of Samoa suffer in the long run. Who knows, maybe this is yet another case of conflict of interest with whomever made the deal just like the S.N.P.F saga? 

I wont be surprised if E.P.C raises the tariff again in the next few months to compensate for these stupid deals they’re making with total disregard to the hardworking consumers paying for their fancy cars, high salaries and unreliable power. 

 

K.S

Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>