LETTER | The three main utilities which started off as the government’s social responsibilities have been turned into protected business enterprises with no trace of people-centric welfare objectives.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Telekom Malaysia (TM), Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Berhad (Syabas) and the various state water supply companies are government-linked companies (GLCs), and being so, they are answerable to the government of the day, and by logical extension, they are answerable to the rakyat.

Hence these giant utility entities should be held beholden to the rakyat.

But what the rakyat faces in reality today is in stark contrast to what we expect. We are at their mercy. We often hear of plans to hike electricity, water or telecommunication rates despite reports of these GLCs making very hefty profits.

In other words, the various boards of directors and their management are running these so-called socially responsible enterprises as purely business enterprises.

A survey of the salaries of the CEOs and board of directors will put their counterparts in many truly private companies to shame. Except for a few very successful CEOs of giant corporations, the monthly salaries of these CEOs dwarf all other top executives in the country.

This is utterly insane and obscene. Compare what these utility CEOs do with what a corporate CEO, prime minister or menteri besar does.

Obscene salaries

In general, the monthly income from consumers is guaranteed. We have no choice but to pay our monthly TNB, Syabas or TM bills. Our deposits in all these utility companies amount to billions. All that they need to do is to ensure non-disruption of services.

Maintenance work is now outsourced and very often, these maintenance jobs are done by one person, with another five or six colleagues looking on. These “one-man work” and “six men look” scenario baffles every passerby.

Going one step further, what these CEOs earn in one contract term of maybe five years (or more) exceeds what a senior manager in the corporate sector earns for his entire employment tenure.

In short, the salaries of these CEOs are simply obscene. Where were you when flood victims needed financial help? Where were you when school rooftops were blown off by typhoons? Instead, the PM has to appeal to private companies for help.

Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) mean more than just making sure there are no live wires dipped in the flood waters, no telecommunications disruption and no burst water pipes. These are your routine mandatory responsibilities.

Why privatise?

In the first place, it puzzles me to think why the three main utilities, TNB, TM and Syabas were privatised. Highway construction and maintenance are of very high costs and privatising it is understandable.

Using electricity, water and telecommunications is almost like needing food every day. All the basic networks are already in place, and not much capital expenditure is needed to continue serving the people.

As such, privatising these utilities is justified only if profits obtained are ploughed back into the government’s coffers. Even if this happens, the rakyat has the right to know all details of profit and loss. Otherwise, we would end up with a situation such as the one with Petronas, where only the PM has the sole privilege.

Planning to increase utility rates periodically is their way of justifying their business acumen. They fail to understand that they are occupying protected positions and calling the shots from these positions does not prove any business acumen.

Your zeal and hunger for higher profits should be focused more on ways to reduce production costs such as harnessing solar energy, wind power and alternative cheaper fuel such as hydrogen or methanol to general electricity rather than to take the easy way out by hiking tariffs.

Revisit documents

The PM has come out with him saying that 85 percent of the people will not be affected by the proposed hike.

I beg your pardon, Mr PM. You have got your priorities wrong. In the first place, the TNB bill charges already cater for differential rates - the more electricity used attracts higher rates. The very notion of making huge profits out of discharging a social responsibility is morally incongruent with looking after people’s welfare.

I strongly advise the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) to revisit the documents behind the privatisation of TNB, TM and Syabas and re-align its objectives and operational guidelines.

Profits made by these national utility giants are guaranteed year in and year out and the major portion of these profits should be parked with the government of the day.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.