Mohd Yaakob Hj Jaafar
KOTA KINABALU (Sept 13): Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) has lodged a police report to conduct further investigation on the electricity bills claimed to be exceedingly high by some villagers at Kg Kulambai, Kg Kuala Abai and Kg Kulambai Dundau in Kota Belud recently.
SESB lodged the police report on Wednesday due to concerns about the possibility of wrongdoing and acts that violate the law by certain parties.
SESB Chief Executive Officer Mohd Yaakob Hj Jaafar said the utility company is also in the process of taking legal action and is handing over the entire follow-up investigation to the authorities.
At the same time, SESB is also conducting an internal investigation to identify the source of the incident in order to ensure it does not recur.
“SESB is also considering lodging a report to the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) if a corruption element exists in the matter,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mohd Yaakob also stressed that SESB will not compromise with any parties, including SESB employees who are found to be involved in abuse of power that resulted in the leakage of electricity supply and burdening customers.
It is SESB’s priority to ensure the interest of each of its clients is protected all the time, which is to ensure quality electricity supply and only billed accordingly.
SESB also welcomes the public to provide information and feedback to improve electricity supply service quality, in line with its and the government’s policy, he said.
Meanwhile, Sabah West Coast Smart Consumers Association has urged SESB to not impose ‘excessive’ charges on consumers in the state.
Its president, David Chan said the association had received numerous complaints from the public, especially the B40 group, due to unreasonable electricity bills.
He said the current topic discussed by the community in the social media included the issue of electricity bills which is claimed to have skyrocketed, and that people were mad at SESB.
David said that uncertain weather and scorching heat resulting in prolonged use of air conditioning had been blamed for the soaring electricity bills.
“(But) even if it is hot, the use of electricity and air conditioning is the same,” he said.
David also commented on the Awani Borneo news report on a large number of villagers from Kg Kulambai Dundau, Kota Belud who were slapped with electricity bills reaching thousands of ringgit.
“It is hoped that SESB takes drastic measures to deal with this issue more thoroughly and identify the root cause of the problem so that it does not happen again. Aside from that, the people are already burdened with the increased cost of living, and so it is not a surprise that people are angry and disappointed when such a thing occurs,” he reminded.
He also said the association felt it was unfair for the rural communities to be charged exorbitant electricity bills by the meter readers.
He said that the SESB management must be held accountable for causing inconveniences to the public who have lost a lot of time going to the SESB office to get an explanation on why their home electricity bills have soared.
“I hope that SESB will give an explanation, at least compensate the users who suffered losses.
“The Smart Consumer Association urges the Energy Commission to confirm and take the necessary action against SESB because it is unfair to consumers and we hope that the same mistake will not happen again,” he said.
In the Astro Awani report, two villagers claimed to have received an electricity bill that exceeded RM10,000.