Kiribati Utilities Reform Program (KURP)

The Kiribati Utilities Reform Program is an institutional strengthening program to benefit PUB, MISE, Kiritimati Island and other agencies. The program commenced in 2022 for 5 years. KURP continues to make good progress with its six pillars of institutional support. PUB’s Information Management System is now operational for accounting, transactional recording and financial reporting. The budget module is available, and PUB will engage HoDs to have input into departmental budgets for 2025. The fixed asset module is also operational, and the payroll is now conducted via the IMS MyPay module. Progress is being made on the interface between the Telstream billing system and NetSuite and it is expected for this automation to be completed by September. Other upgrades to the Telstream billing system are ongoing including a move to the cloud and an upgrade to PUB’s overall systems security. The interactive with ANZ remains to be completed which will close the loop and allow payments to be made directly from the NetSuite system. The inventory and projects modules are taking longer as these have wider implications for work orders, require additional users and user know-how and other procedures to be developed. This also links to the GIS system which is progressing well. The Human Resource Module is also successful with over 2,500 man-hours of training conducted and a range of technical and institutional skills being developed and strengthened, including skills in finance, project management, LV and HV cable-joining, GIS, Hydrogen mixing, O, H & S, network management, governance, drafting SOP’s and management.

Some programs are ongoing leading to competency accreditation and other programs, including training for supervisors are in the planning stage. The two Generators are fully installed and operational at Betio and subject to a 2-year maintenance agreement and final payments to be settled. These are high-speed generators that are used to complement the base load during growing demand and peak demand for power. The pre-paid metering program has been delayed. This is disappointing but reflects delivery delays of meter boxes, PUB’s preparation and closer investigation of existing boxes to reveal greater complexity in installation for the safety of staff and the public. Consequently, the project is to fund an international project manager (PM) for 6 months to prepare, plan and teach staff on safe installation, so that the PUB team will be able to complete installation following the PM contract conclusion. In addition, the project is funding approx. $500k of additional materials and tools necessary for safe and effective installations.

There remains the need for detailed communications for the switchover and additional IT work on the PUB website and at PUB premises to ensure pre-paid tokens will be accessible to the public consumers. We remain in dialogue with the Government as to how to proceed to transfer all government meters to a pre-paid basis. A PM has recently been engaged to commence in September, by when the initial delivery of materials is anticipated and the roll-out can commence in earnest. There have been some test cases of installations on an ad-hoc basis. The Kiritimati Island assistance to MLPID has been successful and the project has recently ordered a new transformer for Kiritimati Island. The Personal Protective Equipment program is also largely complete with the final delivery of equipment due to Kiritimati Island and for PUB soon.