Last week community leaders in Northland accepted a $1 million “goodwill” payment from Transpower in settlement for the disruption and financial loss the region suffered when a pylon collapsed in June.
The settlement comes after Transpower released a report saying what most people had already deduced.
It found standard practice wasn't followed when maintenance work was carried out on the pylon's fastening plates. A maintenance worker removed nuts from three of the four legs, instead of one, causing the pylon to topple. The report found the team member wasn't adequately trained or adequately supervised. It stated removing multiple plates at once had occurred in earlier jobs in June 2024, without incident.
No one is disputing this was an
act of gross negligence. According to media reports, the outage cost the region
anywhere between $37.5m and $80m.
The question is why have our so-called community leaders accepted such a paltry sum as a settlement?
Transpower has total assets of $6.2 billion. Last year its revenue was $930m and it paid a $116m dividend to the government (it is a state-owned enterprise). According to media reports, in 2022 its CEO received $1,494,000 in salary.
$1m is of no consequence and no penalty to
Transpower.
National MP Grant McCallum told
the Advocate that Transpower was not obliged to pay compensation to power users. He added:
"Is it enough? Does it
compensate businesses that have lost [money]? No, it does not. But I felt it
was important to get some acknowledgment from Transpower of the harm that was
caused to Northland and its reputation".
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown was
much less accommodating. He said heads should roll, “or the consequences…will
not be fully understood, nor will the lessons be learned…the buck stops with
the leadership team.”
It looks like our community
leaders rolled over and played scratch my tummy.
References
A copy of the Transpower report may be seen
here >>>
See the Advocate article here >>>
