The Electric Power Corporation (E.P.C.) has moved to curb abuse of Government assets and have appealed to the public to report drivers who are reckless with E.P.C.-owned vehicles.

The Corporation’s General Manager, Tologata Tile Tuimaleali'ifano, urged the public to report any of their vehicles that are seen to be speeding and driven by irresponsible drivers.  

“The initiative is to minimize the abuse of Government assets,” the General Manager told the Samoa Observer.

The Corporation had also posted a public notice on its official Facebook page yesterday.

 “The public is hereby advised to report to the Electric Power Corporation any of our vehicles that are speeding on the road. The following information must be reported: vehicle plate number, location, date, time, type of vehicle and your contact details,” stated the notice. 

Members of the public can also report through the telephone 65500, added Tologata, or Facebook Messenger and email [email protected] 

Tologata said Government assets including those owned by his organisation should be well taken care of. 

“These are public properties and it should be well taken care of, hence the move by the corporation.” 

When he was asked what compelled him to make the appeal, he said they have had no reports of reckless driving, but that form of monitoring isn’t always effective. 

“There have been no reports from the public of E.P.C. vehicle over speeding and reckless driving and that we have speed tracking on the vehicles, however, it does not always work hence the call to the public,” he added. 

Tologata also urged Government ministries, authorities, enterprises and corporations to follow the E.P.C. example and appeal for public help.  

“Again these are Government assets, we must be responsible public servants and drive within the speed limit, but not over speeding.” 

Asked how much did the corporation allocate for vehicle maintenance and fuel, the General Manager said he is not sure. 

“I don’t know on the top of my head, however funds for maintenance and fuel is budgeted under the operations of the office.” 

Members of the public immediately jumped at the opportunity following the post on the official EPC Facebook page. 

A Jordan Schuster, in response to the post, said the corporation should investigate the driver of an E.P.C.-owned light-brown colored Toyota Hilux.

“Whoever the EPC truck that come up/down Cross Island Road (usually a light brownish Hilux) is always speeding and gets really close to cars and recklessly takes over knowing there are cars coming the opposite direction.

“I’ve been seeing it for years now, not sure if it's always the same driver but it's almost always a reckless driver especially at night time,” he posted. 

Another member of the public, Kopeo Kalua, suggested the E.P.C. signed up to the SkyEye vehicle tracking system. The GPS-based system is run by the local company of the same name, SkyEye.