EFL criticised over unspent millions

The Standing Committee on Economic Affairs has criticised Energy Fiji Limited (EFL) over what it says is a lack of transparency in the company's reporting, pointing to millions of dollars in unspent budgets over the past seven years and insufficient detail to support tariff increase applications.

During a committee hearing yesterday, Deputy Chairperson Premila Kumar said EFL's annual reports did not provide enough information on renewable energy projects or the reasons behind requests for higher electricity tariffs.

“After reading your reports, I found that the story you are telling now is not reflected in your annual reports,” Ms Kumar said.

“For example, the payment of dividends in 2023 after the company incurred a loss.

“There is no way it qualifies to say the dividend was worked out in 2022. How can you blame everyone else when people point a finger at you?”

Ms Kumar also highlighted a pattern of underspending by the company.

Figures presented to the committee showed EFL had unspent capital budgets of $42.6 million in 2019, $52.5 million in 2020, $100 million in 2021, $101 million in 2022, $55 million in 2023 and $81 million in 2024.

She said EFL's unspent budget increased to $151.85 million last year.

“So you can understand where the public is coming from and why FCCC is very cautious when approving tariff increases,” she said.

Ms Kumar said there appeared to be a disconnect between EFL's reporting and its actual performance.

She called for future annual reports to include clear key performance indicators (KPIs), project budgets, timelines and delivery targets to provide a more accurate assessment of the company's operations.

“This is why there is often backlash against your tariff applications because you are not clearly demonstrating why higher tariffs are needed,” she said.

EFL chief executive officer Gibson Fatiaki welcomed the criticism and said the issues raised had already been addressed in submissions made to the Fiji Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC).

“As part of our tariff submissions to FCCC, we have provided details of the projects, timelines and costs that support the tariff increase application,” Mr Fatiaki said.

“We will incorporate that information into the 2026 annual report, which will be released later this year. The point has been noted.”