COMMENT Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), being a government-linked company GLC), has to take the full brunt for the water disruption in the Klang Valley.

It cannot wash its hands of the matter and accuse others of failing to provide suitable generator sets to continue running the water treatment plant.

And when it has to do repair works to its Bukit Badong substation which supplies electricity to the treatment plant, it should think of the 4 million consumers in the Klang Valley.

What is worse is when MCA publicity bureau chairperson Chai Kim Sen started on his campaign to politicise the water issue at a time when our taps are running dry.

Tenaga National as a GLC comes under the direction of the federal government. MCA ministers should be stepping in to resolve this issue by directing TNB to expedite its repair work and avoid another such occurrence in the future.

There will never be a suitable time for any repair work to be done especially when water disruption affects 4 million people. Why was it not done a week earlier? Why wait till this week to carry out the maintenance work? Why can it not be delayed by another week?

Doesn’t make sense

In the first place, any generator set approved by TNB should and must be powerful enough to operate the facilities that TNB is currently serving; why now, are we hearing that the generator set is unable to operate to meet the requirements of the water treatment plant?

Despite knowing that water cut is a yearly occurrence for Selangorians, why is TNB not doing anything? Perhaps, it is time for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to swoop in to investigate how the purchase of an expensive piece of equipment like a generator set could end up a white elephant?

How much was the generator set purchased for compared to the prices in the market? How was the purchase approved? Why was a generator set accepted, despite knowing that the generator set is unable to meet the plant’s requirements? The whole thing does not make sense at all, unless some high-powered officers were allegedly on the take.

For now, TNB has to answer all these questions instead of pushing it to a third party. Is it not possible for TNB to boost the generator set capacity with its own mobile generators? Don’t tell us that there is no money for a cash-rich GLC.

After all, to buy a generator set would not even make a dent to the RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ from an Arab prince. Although this may be totally unrelated, it shows the level of cynicism of most Malaysians these days whenever the government or a GLC says they have no money for a repair job or to fix some public amenities.

Irresponsible

This is not the first time that it has happened. Such a thing would not have occurred during the time of TNB’s former executive chairperson Ani Arope. It clearly shows the management has changed since those good old days when TNB would respond almost immediately to complaints.

A year ago, when I returned home late close to midnight, I found the electricity had not been restored despite several complaints being lodged in the morning after my son saw a small spark at the main fuse.

Thinking that the repair team would come and fix the fuse, I left the keys with my neighbours, with a note on the gate informing any TNB repair team where the keys were.

I had no choice but to contact the senior management staff of TNB, before a back-up team finally arrived from Bangsar to get the fuse fixed. This was nearly 16 hours after the first complaint was lodged.

In another incident, while the substation to my housing estate was being maintained, there was no power supply for a whole day. When power finally came back, the supply was intermittent, which could easily damage any office equipment.

It is time for TNB management to buck up. If not because it is monopolising the energy sector, competition would have dented the GLC like its other associates, Telekom Malaysia and Pos Malaysia.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.