$1.3m bonus for FEA staff

MARAIA VULA
SUVA
Good news for staff and management of the Fiji Electricity Authority as they will receive a bonus totalling $1.3 million in their next pay.
The announcement was made by the Attorney-General and Minister for Public Enterprises, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, yesterday. The bonus payout will be for the 737 salary/wage earners, 27 unit leaders and also the nine executive team members.
In announcing this, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum acknowledged the contribution, hard work and dedication of all the staff of the authority.
“We value your contribution. We want you to stay in the organisation. We want you to have international standards,” he said.
“We are looking at some private sector participation in FEA and it will be very exciting to have that level of investment but without the human resources, that won’t be achievable.”
Meanwhile, the authority’s financial performance was also announced yesterday. FEA made a profit of $32.5 million in 2013 compared to $75.3 million in 2012.
The profit recorded has been largely attributed to the commissioning of the Nadarivatu Hydro Project which produced some 98.6 million units of energy for 2013.
Also, stringent measures are expected to have been implemented to control operational expenditure.
FEA chairman, Nizam-ud-Dean, said had the Nadarivatu Scheme not performed well and produced 98.6 million units of energy, FEA would have recorded a loss of around $2.1 million after tax.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum acknowledged that the overall net profit compared to the previous year had dropped.
But, he said nonetheless, on the year to year comparable basis, it was still an increase.
“The reality is that FEA like any state owned enterprises or statutory bodies must maintain a level of profitability to be able to reinvest in its assets,” he stressed.
“Because if you don’t do that, than for example infrastructure like Monasavu, Nadarivatu even your lines etc, cannot be maintained.
“And then we will be playing an enormous catch-up game which means enormous amount of capital investments after a period of time.”
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said having certain level of profitability allows to invest back into assets.
“With assets, I don’t just mean physical assets, but also means human resources,” he said.
“Whether it’s training or exposure to new technology new methodologies of running an organisation, administering sections or technical section or engineering section all of that needs upgrades continuously.”
Feedback: maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj