A syndicate of Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, ESCOM employees, has since 2018 defrauded about K60 billion kwacha worth of pre-paid meter units sold by parallel structures to companies and individuals in the country.

New ESCOM Chief Executive, Kamkwamba Kumwenda says this has been going on since the company migrated to pre-paid meter billing system with preliminary findings exposing that some Malawians of Asian origin and companies will no longer buy electricity units from ESCOM for 5 the next five years.

“Some companies even have 17 million kwacha worth of electricity meaning they can’t buy any units for the next five years,” disclosed Kumwenda.

The ESCOM CEO says they will now embark on a nationwide inspection of the 461,000 properties that have been flagged in the fraud.

Kamwamba said they will also start to name and shame the people involved while legal avenues.