NEA eyes P145-M savings this year

The National Electrification Administration (NEA) expects to generate savings of P145.32 million this year following the restructuring of the agency in line with the mandate of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or Republic Act 9136.

This was disclosed by NEA Administrator Edith Bueno who said bulk of the savings will come from manpower expenditure in view of the reduction of the agency’s work force from approximately 800 to about 400.

The savings represent a 45-percent reduction in manpower expenditure beginning this year.

The restructuring of NEA was completed at the end of last year following a two-year process of consultation with NEA employees. Bueno said the new organizational design "is the product of a highly-participative consensus-building process and was accepted by the agency’s then existing 17 employee association".

Bueno said the new NEA structure "is much smaller now since there is less need to hand-hold the rural electric cooperatives which are our primary clientele". The sector has inked major successes in the bid to rehabilitate moribund electric cooperatives.

The agency is currently staffed 100 percent by NEA employees who resigned or retired under the old structure and who were re-hired under the new organizational design.

Bueno said the restructured agency is now set to focus on the electrification of some 760 barangays and sitios all over the country, the supervision of the performance improvement program for rural electric cooperatives and the rehabilitation efficiency plan.

NEA has allocated some P450 million for the electrification of barangays and sitios.

Bueno also reported that of the country’s 119 rural electric coops, more close to 80 are considered excellently performing and less than 20 still continue to require assistance for their rehabilitation.

Much of the assistance now is coming from other coops within their sector, Bueno said.