NamPower ranked top parastatal by Institute of Public Policy Research
Following the assessment of 21 Namibian commercial state-owned enterprises across ten criteria including profitability, availability of information, mismanagement and corruption, board stability, taxes and dividends paid, and investment in the economy, the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) has ranked national power utility, NamPower at number one.
The research firm in its inaugural Public Enterprise Rankings report said Nampower (with 99 points) is now a well-run genuinely commercial operation contributing to the fiscus and investing for the future while providing plenty of information to the public.
“Questions can be asked about the years it spent chasing prestige projects and the lack of significant new generating capacity this led to before embracing the Independent Power Producer (IPP) concept,” IPPR said.
Furthermore, IPPR views NamPower as a monopoly whose prices are regulated by the Electricity Control Board, adding thus it is always possible to raise prices, make profits and pay taxes and dividends.
Following on the tail of NamPower is MTC (97 points), followed by NamPost (94 points), NamPort (84 points) and Namdia (80 points) in the top 5 segment.
Based on the rankings, the worst public enterprise is the Roads Contractor Company. With no public information available on its financial performance over many years, the Roads Contractor Company scores poorly (0 points) across all criteria.
“The company may have been thrown a lifeline through the sale of its headquarters to Namibia Post and Telecom Holdings (NPTH) but it must surely be a question of time before it is finally put out of its misery,” IPPR noted on the Roads Contractor Company.
The assessments are based on information that has been made publicly available. The full list of rankings are available on IPPR’s website.
