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Dr Rashid officially resumes duties at Tanesco
2007-11-27 15:12:39
By Judica Tarimo
The Board of Directors of the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) yesterday accepted the decision by the firm’s Managing Director, Dr Idris Rashid, to withdraw his resignation letter.
Rashid tendered the letter to the board on Wednesday last week, with sources saying he had differed with board members over plans to hike power tariff and service connection charges.
However, he changed his mind the very next day and notified the board accordingly in writing.
``The Tanesco board of directors discussed his (second) resignation withdrawal letter this morning and accepted it unanimously and unconditionally,`` said board chairperson Fulgence Kazaura in an exclusive interview with this paper yesterday.
``Initially, the MD had indicated that he had decided to withdraw his resignation without any conditionality. Now the board has also accepted his decision unconditionally,`` he added.
The official endorsement of Dr Rashid’s second letter came as an additional item on the agenda of a meeting of the board held in Dar es Salaam yesterday to deliberate on the company`s budget and corporate business plan for next year.
Elaborating, Kazaura explained that discussion of the MD`s letter was not among the meeting`s salient features or core businesses but was “an additional but important part of our agenda”.
The Tanesco MD’s resignation move touched off perhaps as many conflicting views from energy stakeholders and the public as did his follow-up decision. However, Kazaura pointed out that Dr Rashid had decided to resign “completely on his own volition and without any conditionality”.
He added: “We have received a letter from Dr Rashid in which he says he is retracting his resignation effective from today. The board members will decide on this second letter after going through it.”
The Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) recently turned down a request by the power supply firm to hike power tariffs and service connection charges, insisting that wananchi publicly air their views on the matter first.
Local media reports had earlier reported that Tanesco had sought to have power connection charges and tariffs hiked by over 100 and 40 per cent, respectively.
Tanesco was out to hike the connection charges beginning this month and the tariffs by January but there have been nationwide calls against the plans, and hence Ewura’s intervention.
Following Ewura`s stance, Tanesco suspended the installation of new service lines and introduced an arrangement under which new customers would have to buy all the equipment needed for installing service lines.
Dr Rashid`s resignation threat came only days after the company`s plans had hit the wall, denied mandatory approval from Ewura.
It is widely believed that the MD, a former Bank of Tanzania governor, has won credit from the country`s development partners over the management of the company during the one year or so he has been in charge.
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