• Unprecedented appointment through public interview.
• Monumental challenges ahead for youthful chief.
By M.A. Egge
The Head of State H. E. Ahmed Mohammed Mohamud has appointed Mr. Ahmed-Yasin Sh. Mohammed Jama as the Manager of the giant parastatal, the Hargeisa Electricity Agency.
The criteria whose mode was followed to select the new head is unprecedently the first one for a parastatal chief; the youthful looking British Somalilander Mr. Ahmed-Yasin had to competitively sit for an exam in the search of a new manager that was advertized for through a public notice by the civil service commission.
It is the prerogative of the President to name parastatal heads with or without interviews.
The office fell vacant after the former occupier Mr. Abdiweli was sacked over allegation of corruption slightly a couple of months ago by the public works minister Hon. A. Habsade.
The giant HEA is a quite viable institution held with high esteem by the members of the public.
It is a fact that Mr. Ahmed-yasin has a monumental task ahead of him in a challenge that ought to instill diligence and transparency, hence at the same time, step up its technical and commercial service sectors.
The new manger of HEA incidentally has a wealth of knowledge and experience in running an enormous commercial institution.
His penchant for challenge can be visualized by the fact left he left a large international industry in food production of world repute, Delifrance, where he has been a unit (general) manager in charge of a working force of over 200 for the immediate past 19 straight years.
The former naval officer who joined the forces upon completion of his high school and national services, was lucky t
o have landed a 4 year course stint at Alexandria in Egypt.
An avid education seeker with gumption for learning Ahmed-yasin took a Higher National Diploma in business management and a second advanced degree in Business Management Administration upon landing in UK where he has been for the past quarter century.
The public owned electricity company has been lately in the limelight for trading counter and counter accusations following the sacking of the former CEO amidst allegations of rampant corruption.
The highly viable institution is now in the shadows of a cartel of private electricity suppliers who charge exorbitant prices. Lighting system in the city is below par and has not been standardized at all.
The majority of houses do not have inclusive fittings of the “third” earth compulsory wires; similarly there are no transformers (if any), three-phase wires used are substandard and waste a lot of energy currents.
Worst of all, the webs of criss-crossing of wires overhead city wide and particular focal distribution points at houses are quite haphazard and are a time bomb waiting to explode, if no safety measures are taken swiftly.
It is the hope of city residents that something would be done to keep the fleecing and costly cartels at bay.
