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GPL drops Bill Direct as payment agent
-utility company reportedly owed hundreds of millions
A prominent collection agency which received millions of dollars from consumers to pay electricity bills but failed to remit the money in a timely manner has been dropped by the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL).
The power company, in a release Friday, disclosed that it has terminated the payment collection arrangement it had with Bill Direct (Guyana) Inc. since Tuesday, September 13.
The money involved is said to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
GPL says that it has stopped using Bill Direct as its payment agency
GPL consumers are now being asked not to use Bill Direct and rather utilize other avenues.
The other agencies include Bill Express, Guyana Post Office Corporation, Republic Bank, Guyana Bank For Trade and Industry, Demerara Bank and Citizens Banks.
Kaieteur News has learnt that a few years ago, Bill Express signed an agreement with GPL and other utility companies to collect payments for a fee and remit the proceeds to those respective agencies. These agencies include the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Guyana Water Inc, among others.
However, several months ago, GPL announced it was reviewing the arrangement.
Bill Direct was allowed to continue its work until Tuesday.
While GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal, was not immediately available for a comment yesterday, a senior official of that state-owned company disclosed that the amount involved a few months ago was around $700M.
It was also found that while Bill Direct had settled with GWI and GT&T, that it was GPL that it had the problem with.
Bill Direct operates several branches around the city and its environs.
Kaieteur News understands that several months ago, the matter has seen lawyers becoming involved and Bill Direct agreeing to make payments.
At that time, lawyers had advised against GPL ending the arrangement.
However, GPL decided to pull the plug after no serious signs to pay was shown by Bill Direct.
GPL on Friday assured that customers who have made payments to the collections agency up to yesterday will have their accounts credited.
“GPL apologizes to its customers for any inconvenience caused by its termination of its payment collection arrangement with Bill Direct (Guyana) Inc.”
It was unclear how regularly Bill Direct had to remit the money to GPL and how often these reconciliations to verify the accuracy were done by GPL.
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