Aurora: first profit stripping then incompetent management

Richard Healey

March 25 at 9:06 PM · 

Let's get one thing straight. Asset failures at Aurora began because of profit stripping by successive councils. The reason they continue to fail now has as much to do with incompetent management as the original cause.

We have seen a procession of senior managers wade through the neck high crap that characterises life at Aurora. They all have one thing in common. Their selection was heavily influenced by Steve Thompson - the man who is still on record as saying that Aurora's problems are really just a matter of public perception.

Think about this, none of the last three CEO's have any previous experience in that role. The current CEO doesn't seem to know the difference between a switch and a transformer. Why is that? Here's my view.

At a time when strong, expert leadership is obviously needed we get - putty. Fletcher looks to me like a man who is just grateful to have the role - oh - and the half million that goes with it each year. He doesn't strike me as someone who will front the board and fight to make the company live up to the values it claims to hold.

Here's a man who refers to multimillion dollar fines from the Commerce Commission as being "on the naughty step". And why is that? Could it be because, since he took over, the average minutes without power for each customer has jumped from an appalling 109 per year to a simply staggering 253?

But haven't Aurora been doing lots of work that require outages? Isn't that the reason? Only in Fletcher's dreams. 2018 unplanned powercuts alone were longer than 2017 planned and unplanned combined!

And that Bollocks about replacing 6000 poles, the last annual report says that in 18 months, not twelve, the Muppet's managed replace OR NAIL 5000 poles. Since nailing has, IMHO, about the same amount of value as Fletcher brings to his role, that would make their performance not only miserable, but also inordinately expensive.

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Otago power poles still failing due to 'prolonged under-investment'

Multiple children could have died if a power pole in a network plagued by "under-investment" had fallen just hours earlier or later than it did.

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  John Evans No one in Dunedin can admit the company’s failures because the demise of executives, councillors and accountants would bring the whole pack of Rotten dominoes running Dunedin down.

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    Richard Healey John Evans, Fletcher admits here that, and I quote, "Aurora today is a lot different from the Aurora two years ago ... We are not efficient as a business and neither would we be because we are effectively a new business."
    
    A new business using the same business management system, the same financial system, the same CFO, many of the same staff (now wearing different badges) controlling exactly the same asset within the same regulatory framework. The reason that the company has lost efficiency and reliability is simple in my view. The decisions Fletcher has made. His insistance on restructuring the restructure that restructured the previous restructure. Not that change isn't needed. Unfortunately if you hit the ground running you need to be pointing in the right direction.
    
    It seems to me that Fletcher doesn't know which way is up - let alone which way is forward.

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