BPC fires 5 executives

Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) this week fired five members of the executive management as part of its bid to get the ailing organisation back in shape. The axing of the executives forms spart of the implementation of the Masa 2020- Reshaping the Organisation declaration meant to deliver a new structured BPC which will be profitable within a reasonable time.  Some of the executive management and lowly-placed employees will either be axed or redeployed under the strategy.

Chief Executive Officer of BPC Dr Stefan Peter Schwartzfischer was cagey when asked about the latest development. He only confirmed that as per Masa 2020, almost all executive positions were advertised both internally and externally and that interviews were conducted to weed out those without the requisite skills.

He declined to mention by name or position, the axed executives. However, Schwartzfischer revealed that so far, they have received 400 applications for voluntary retrenchment saying they had started an evaluation process to identify who to grant relief. “We started with Exco level, every job was publicised. We had two head hunters who did the screening and shortlisted. The final four have been evaluated; they were all asked to present their qualification and went through the vigorous exercises and interviews,” he said.

BG News has learnt that the executives who have so far been relieved their jobs include the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Director Customer Service and Supply, Executive Coordinator, Generation Manager, Strategy and Transformation Manager and Distribution and Transmission Manager. It said that the director of Generation has not lost his job but, has been redeployed.
The new structure will see BPC still being led by 9 executives, but what will be different this time around is that there are new positions and some positions have been merged to promote efficiency.