NAGA CITY --- The Camarines Sur II Electric Cooperative, Inc. will highlight significant gains otherwise described by critics as “solely attributable to Officer-In-Charge Jane Barrameda’s sound management” during the 24th Annual General Assembly on Saturday, October 25 in Pili, Camarines Sur.

        A document obtained by this reporter showed a robust 98 percent collection efficiency that the coop registered since July 2008, when during the same month the electric coop also registered a 17-percent systems loss reduction, a strong improvement from 24 percent registered in 2006.

        An advisory from the National Electrification Administration has stated that once a power coop attained a systems loss of 14% and below, member-consumers of said coop would no longer be billed for the systems loss reported.

        The incumbent board leadership and the management of Casureco II are also glad to report that the coop was able to cut current power rate from P10 per kilowatt hour to P6/kwh.

        Effective the third quarter of this year Casureco II was able to avail of the 6% prompt payment discount from the National Power Corporation and TRANSCO that enabled the coop to save by as much as P5 million to P7 million every month.

        The document also showed an increasing membership of 4.05% and household connection by 4.48% compared to 3.77% percent and 4.25% in 2006, respectively.

        The power coop also will report about the improved cash collection of more or less P160 million in monthly power bills.

‘Abolish the board!’

        Meanwhile, Casureco II Consumers Movement leader Dr. Domingo Yu, past board president of Casureco II, said his group is now readying a resolution strongly calling for the abolition of the 10-man board whose members “are no longer working for the interest and welfare of the member-consumers”.

        The resolution will be presented to the public for endorsement during the general assembly and will officially be sent to NEA and other government agencies concerned for proper action and disposition.

        Yu and his group attributed the gains by the power coop solely to Barrameda’s “exemplary management skill” and not to the coop’s policy makers now under the leadership of Board President Larry Basmayor.

        Bicol Mail had exposed several controversy-tainted transactions by the coop since the previous board leaderships which involved several millions of pesos.

        Recently, this paper disclosed the placement of a cash deposit account of more or less P6 million with G7Bank despite National Electrification Administration memorandum discouraging power coops from depositing their cash with rural banks.

Board’s initiative

        Meanwhile, present board members expressed confidence that more financial gains are expected before the end of 2008 following the abolition of the Barangay Power Associations (BAPAs) in municipalities that have accumulated financial losses amounting to more than P5 million.

        BAPAs was operationalized more than 25 years ago for the purpose of strengthening member awareness and involvement in efforts towards the reduction of system loss, improvement of collection efficiency, and fortification of the institutional consciousness in the grassroots level. However, it has been observed that in the past few years the number of BAPAs had dwindled and others had became inactive.

        It also developed certain weak points that are damaging to the coop: lack or absence of electric coop’s staff tasked to closely monitor the program; delayed collections; members, especially farmers, could not pay on time; and mismanagement by BAPA officers, such as malversation of funds and delayed remittance of power bills and lack of clear-cut policies or guidelines from which BAPA implementation could be based.

        BAPA does not have legal personality, which limits its capacity to seek funding sources and makes the organization vulnerable to corruption, laxity in the implementation of collection and disconnection policy.

        Basmayor admitted that the abolition of BAPA is among the board’s initiatives to obtain the “A” category before the end of 2008 from the present category “B” achieved last August, this year.

        He said the ongoing rehab projects in Naga City, Canaman, Milaor and Minalabac are financed under the fund grant of the national government dubbed as the Bicol-Calamity Assistance and Rehabilitation Efforts (B-CARE) Program.

        The rehabilitation works are focused on the installation of 3-phase lines costing P47, 855,713.36 which the incumbent board leadership acquired through Congressmen Dato Arroyo and Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur’s first and second districts, respectively.

        Three-phase power lines, Basmayor said, are good indicators that the areas are ready for commercial and/or industrial development.

        He also disclosed that effective next year Casureco II would intensify its P10.7 million Sitio Energization Program being funded by the national government.

‘Unseating Jane’

        In related development, Yu pleaded to NEA Deputy Administrator Pablo M. Pan II to designate Barrameda as full-fledged general manager.

        Yu’s request was made after his contacts inside Casureco II confirmed the board’s plan to unseat Barrameda despite “her impressive performance.” Pan, on the other hand, told Yu that NEA is sending “somebody to evaluate Jane’s (Barrameda) performance, so we can decide on her permanency.”