I couldn't agree more with all the comments being currently made on TNB. As an ex-TNB officer, let me reiterate that the calamitous concern with TNB is the mismanagement of the company and the excessive political intervention during previous times.

As a result of this, the innocent people the poor are forced to bear the brunt of it. The government should look within TNB itself and the imprudent deals it made with the IPPs to supply power for TNB before taxing the rakyat. With an increase in tariff, the prices of most essentials are going to rise soon. The rakyat are going to feel the pinch and many are going to vent their anger come the next national election.

The management of TNB itself is substantially to be blamed for this predicament. Just look at the number of employees TNB has. Many are just deadwood with a 'tidak apa' attitude. They should be asked to voluntarily leave the company. Many are marking their time and waiting to retire with hefty service benefits such as gratuities and life-long medical benefits that no other loss- making companies can afford to give.

The majority of TNB employees are still stuck with the government service mentality. They put in less work during working hours and wait for after-office hours to get the chores done. Why? Because they have the benefits of overtime pay. The culture is that individual interests always come first - at the expense of the company. Nothing has been done to change this mindset.

Instead of retiring these deadwood, TNB goes on creating and filling in posts with higher grades and salaries. These workers later end up retiring with a lot more in gratuities and other benefits. Does TNB need a chairman when there is already a CEO? The management goes on engaging "consultants" most of whom are ex-TNB staff spending millions of ringgit with no tangible benefits to the organisation.

The management just lacks the acumen, or shall I say the right conscience, to manage a company. Some managers and staff feel that the company owes them a lot and they should do their very best to claim as much money as they can before they leave the company. These are opportunists who have found their ways into the company, but accepted by the top managers and condoned for their wrongdoings. You rub my back and I rub your back. Never mind if TNB bleeds.

So much funds have been wasted in creating their university which is poorly managed. There is a so-called graduate school with about eight students all from TNB - but it employs not less than 50 staff. There are more than 10 teaching staff paid more than RM12,000 each to teach less than 10 students and that too only during alternate weekends and during the academic terms. TNB staff medical bills run into more than RM150 million a year. Nothing concrete has been done to reduce this amount.

The management just does not have a sense of responsibility towards the organisation that is now in debt to the tune of RM30 billion. Who cares? After all, let the government inject more money into it is the attitude. It's a GLC, after all.

The government and TNB management should look into all these factors - the wastage on lavish and unnecessary projects, vehicle maintenance, fancy buildings that do not give any economic returns, the unnecessary meetings and outstation duties, false and unwarranted claims, the wastage and inefficiency in running a university, staff recruitment, the unnecessary creation of posts to accommodate deadwood, the unnecessary creation of irrelevant departments and units that do not generate income for the organisation, and above all, the calibre of people entrusted to manage this company.

On the outside, review immediately the lopsided contract agreements TNB had been prodded into with those profit-making independent power supply companies.

If all these areas are looked into seriously, TNB would be less burdened with debts and wastage and would not run into heavy financial losses.

With prudent management of the company, TNB does not have to increase the electricity tariff as this can only be a short-term measure. The company has to be cleaned up before it can see the light at the end of the tunnel.