What is the rational for Tenaga Nasional Bhd to pay an average of 2.7 months bonus to its 27,000 workers nationwide as announced recently? The performance of this GLC has deteriorated ever since it was privatised and its service to consumers have been abysmal to put it mildly.

Although its net profit surged to a record 82 per cent to RM736.4 million for its fourth quarter ending August 2006, this was nevertheless bolstered by the recent tariff hike. President and CEO Khalib Mohamad Noh admitted that the tariff hike contributed RM400 million to its earnings last year.

Since the increase in profit was entirely due to the tariff hike and not due to better productivity or improved services, why should TNB reward its workers nationwide? To pay a bonus based on mediocre performance is to reward incompetence. To seek a hike in tariffs and use the profit derived from this hike to pay its workers an average of 2.7 months of bonus is the height of irresponsibility.

How can the CEO justify to the average consumer a price hike which it seems is to pay for an exorbitant bonus to its workers? Without the profit derived from the hike, TNB's profit would be a meagre RM336.4 million. When compared to its huge capital outlay, such a performance would be gauged as below par.

The average citizen has a right to demand an explanation why the TNB CEO and its board deemed it appropriate to pay such extravagant bonus when its workers' performance has deteriorated.

The frequent breakdown and outages, the poor response for repair services, the hassle in making payments at TNB counters and the overall quality of TNB services certainly do not merit any bonus at all.