The National Federation Party says the CEO of Energy Fiji Limited Hasmukh Patel deserves the strongest condemnation for saying that people should buy generators if they need power soon after a cyclone.
NFP’s General Secretary Seni Nabou says thousands of people are unemployed and thousands have to survive on reduced wages and salaries and people are still reeling from the wrath of Cyclones Yasa and Ana and widespread flooding.
She says at a time when thousands are struggling to put food on the table, Patel is arrogantly asking people to buy generators.
Nabou says it is EFL's lawful obligation to provide an uninterrupted supply of power to every citizen and Patel’s advice for people to generate their own power is an open admission of his failure.
Nabou further says Patel is clearly wilting under public pressure, and if he cannot take the heat, he must bow out.
She adds it is also worrying that Patel appears to be struggling to properly manage his staffing, where he has said that his staff were working without breaks to restore power after TC Yasa.
The NFP’s General Secretary says this shows EFL is under-staffed and overstretched in its core function of ensuring constant and safe power supply.
We are trying to get a response from Hasmukh Patel.
Patel had said yesterday that people should buy a generator if they want power supply soon after a cyclone.
Patel says they have certain procedures which have to be followed before power is restored and they do not have unlimited labour force and cannot just employ people for a cyclone and keep them on their payroll as it will be a cost to the EFL.
Patel says they currently have around 400 people engaged in restoring power supply around Fiji and also have 15 private contractors.
