Mike's Minute: Transpower isn't the only one at fault

I can't help but think the Transpower report into the pylon falling over is one of those reports that has to find things to say because the real reason for the report was obvious. 

Nevertheless, there are 26 recommendations. 

To recap, the company that Transpower hires to maintain the pylons hired a couple of clowns and didn’t train them. They undid a lot of bolts, and the pylon fell over. 

The report suggests that ultimately is Transpower's fault. 

I don’t see how. 

If you hire a painter and he paints your house the wrong colour, your wife tells you you’re are an idiot for hiring that painter. 

As long as Transpower had checked that Omexom was a proper company, what is it they are supposed to be doing? 

Are they supposed to vet the company every time they do any work? Do they run through the CV of everyone who touches a bolt? Or is that the contractor's job, the way it’s the contractor's job for everyone you hire in life to do anything for you? 

Certainly the issue raised in 2021, when an engineer for Transpower told them maintenance issues were a thing, is on Transpower? 

They were alerted and yet they did nothing. That, I suspect, goes in some way to the fact Transpower are a monopoly and monopolies tend to be a bit lax. 

The report recommends Transpower improve processes for maintenance work on base plates. What does that mean? 

Do you need to hire a rocket scientist to unscrew some bolts and have a laminated sign on every tower saying "only undo one bolt at a time"? Surely this is getting all a bit forensic and smacks of a report author making stuff up for the sake of it? 

The simple truth, the beginning, the middle and the end of it, is Omexom are at fault. They are the ones that didn’t do their job. The original report told us this. 

None of this is complicated. They weren't building the Hadron Collider. They were cleaning a tower. 

Omexom hired fools, didn’t train them and untrained fools made mistakes. 

Omexom should be sacked. They should be sued or made to pay for the damage. The report says anywhere between $37-80 million, and that should be that. 

Transpower are not devoid of responsibility, given pylons are on them. But the reason a CEO doesn’t clean the building, do the correspondence and make all the boxes is it's not possible and not reasonable and that’s why you hire people to do the stuff you can't. 

At some point in the hiring process the level of responsibility transfers from the hirer to the hiree? 

End of report. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now listen. I can't help but think the Transpower report
into the Pilon falling Over and we'll talk about it
shortly is one of those reports that has to find
things to say because the real reason for the report
was obvious. Nevertheless, there are twenty six recommendations now to recap.
The company that Transpower hires to maintain the pilons hired
a couple of clowns and didn't train them. They undid
a lot of bolts, and the Pilon fell over. The

(00:22):
report suggests that ultimately is Transpower's fault. I don't see
how you hire a painter he paints your house the
wrong color. Your wife tells you you're an idiot for
hiring the painter. As long as Transpower had checked that
a Maxim was a proper company. What is it they're
supposed to be doing. Are they supposed to bet the
company every time they do any work? Do they run
through the CB of everyone who touches a bolt? Or

(00:44):
is that the contractor's job the way it's the contractor's
job for everyone you hire in your life to do
anything for you. Certainly, the issue raised in twenty twenty
one when an engineer four Transpower told the maintenance issues
were a thing that is on Transpower. Now they were alerted,
and yet they did nothing. That I suspect goes in
some way to the fact that Transpower are a monopoly,

(01:05):
and monopolies tend to be a little bit lax around
these things. The report recommends Transpower improved processes for maintenance
work on base plates. What's that mean, I mean it's
water blasting something. Do you need to hire a rocket
scientist to unscrew some bolts and have a laminated sign
on every tower saying only undo one bolt at a time.

(01:25):
Surely this is getting all a little bit forensic and
smacks of a report author making stuff up basically for
the sake of it. The simple truth is the beginning,
the middle, and the end of it is a Maxim
are a fault. They are the ones that didn't do
the job. The original report told us all this. None
of this is complicated. They weren't building the Hadron collide.
They were cleaning a tower. A maxim hired fools, didn't

(01:47):
train them, and untrained fools make mistakes. A maxim should
be sacked. They should be sued or made to pay
for the damage. The report says anywhere between thirty seven
and eighty million dollars, and that should be that transpower
are not devoid of complete repet sponsibility, given pylons are
on them. But the reason the CEO doesn't clean the building,
do the correspondence, and make all the boxes is it's

(02:07):
not possible, it's not reasonable, and that's why you hire
people to do stuff you can't. At some point in
the hiring process, the level of responsibility transfers from the
hier to the high re end of report. For more
from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks
that'd b from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

(02:29):
on iHeartRadio