With a target to control leakage and reduce its loss, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has accelerated the process of signing performance contracts with the chiefs of regional offices and project managers.

In this regard, NEA has signed a performance agreement with Om Prakash Mahato, head of the Janakpur regional office and also the chiefs of 16 distribution centres under the respective regional office today.

According to NEA, among all the regional offices the Janakpur regional office has the worst track record with regards to power leakage. It had 31.30 per cent power leakage in the last fiscal year and till October this year the power leakage stood at 28.75 per cent.

Meanwhile, Kul Man Ghising, managing director of NEA, has directed all the regional offices to maintain power leakage within 22.19 per cent in the current fiscal year. “We have to decrease the power leakage that is taking place from our distribution centres at the regional and local levels too and for that we need to sign contracts so that heads of respective offices are aware that they need to improve their performance,” he stated.

Earlier, NEA management had signed performance contracts with the heads of Biratnagar, Nepalgunj and Surkhet regional offices on December 25, 2017.

Last year, in the first phase, the power utility had said it would sign performance contracts with regional chiefs and in the second phase it would complete the signing process with project chiefs.

As per NEA, it will provide cash incentives to chiefs of distribution centres if they are able to achieve at least 50 per cent of the target regarding loss reduction and outstanding due settlement. The power utility has also stated that those who are able to meet the target will get the opportunity to attend training programmes abroad.

According to NEA, loss reduction, leakage control, reducing administrative expenses, outstanding due settlement and increment in the number of consumers are the criteria of the contract.

Moreover, Ghising himself has also signed a performance contract with the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to maintain power leakage at around 20 per cent. As per data maintained by NEA, it suffered 22.9 per cent power loss in the last fiscal year. Till mid-July this year, NEA was able to reduce the figure to 20.45 per cent and has set a target to maintain electricity leakage at below 18 per cent by end of the current fiscal year.

“The main reason why we have accelerated the process to sign performance contracts is to enhance the output of our employees, which will subsequently contribute in making NEA a financially strong institution,” Ghising stated.

NEA also informed that it will continue with the performance contract system with chiefs of the offices and projects in the future too. Moreover, the power utility has formed a mechanism for regular monitoring of its offices every four months.