By Arret Jatta
National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), has no policy or guidelines on how certain accidents can be mitigated, the Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) report for the year 2019 and 2020 has disclosed.
The Chairperson of the PEC Committee Lamin L Sanneh said that they have observed that there was no policy or guidelines on how avoidable accidents can be mitigated in NAWEC.
Mr. Sanneh added that they noted this during a visit at the Brikama Power Plants 1&3 and Kotu Power Station that there was a lack of protective gears such as helmets, overalls, Electric Insulated Voltage Gloves, Dusk Masks, Eye Protection, and so on despite these items being included in the budget of NAWEC for 2020.
“We also noted a few fire extinguishers scattered around the administrative building. However, those fire extinguishers are not regularly tested or refilled for effective use. The date of when the last test was carried out is not even known. Evidence of a fire drill being conducted was also not provided to the auditors” he queried.
Therefore, the committee recommends that NAWEC should ensure that a Health and Safety Policy is developed, approved, and rolled out to all staff soonest.
The committee also recommends that NAWEC should carry out safety drills regularly and the observations on lapses documented for improvements.