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GPL’s Board has underserved Guyanese

Apr 27, 2013 Letters

 

 

Dear Editor,
In response to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds’ open letter in Kaieteur News to Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, leader of the AFC titled, “GPL is deserving of the allocations in the 2013 budget” we want the people to know that instead of revealing all the facts, the Prime Minister chooses to highlight his own facts and accuse the opposition of playing politics.
Mr. Hinds should be candid and tell the nation that GPL is one of the most inefficient and mismanaged state enterprises in the country, and for him to say that the prices charged by GPL are among the lowest in the Caribbean is fiction.
It is time for the Prime Minister to tell GPL to reimburse the thousands of Guyanese who lost their fridges and other electrical appliances due to endless power outages and the voltage surges that often follow.
The Prime Minister of all persons should know that something is not right with the Board and the leadership at GPL. So for him to seek an extra $5 billion of the taxpayers’ money for GPL, but say nothing when its CEO and its board of directors rented generators at the same cost of purchasing those generators is confused thinking and planning. But this is the reckless manner in which this administration spends taxpayers’ money.
GPL Leadership and the Board clearly are underserving the people of Guyana. The company has a very inefficient transmission and distribution system and this is the case even after some G$40 billion has been poured into it since 1992. After more than 20 years of providing those billions to the ‘fat cats’ at GPL, there has been no let-up in the commercial theft and technical line losses which suck a significant percentage of the revenue from the company as a hidden cost that just disappears into thin air.
Prior to 1992, the PPP had criticized the Burnham regime for the constant power blackouts and promised to fix the system within the first six months if elected to office. After being in power for more than two decades, the PPP has done little or nothing to improve the system and reduce the power outages. As a matter of fact, it has gotten worse.
We have discovered that some G$8.5 billion is lost at GPL because of the aforementioned commercial theft and technical line losses. Of that sum, a total of G$4.5 billion is lost as a result of the former. This has been happening for years now under the leadership of Mr. Brassington and the Jagdeo/Ramotar administrations and so far nothing has been done to correct it.
How can any reasonable and rational government ask the opposition to approve an extra $5 billion when GPL continues to lose $8.5 billion in commercial theft and line losses?
It is time for the Board to go! This should be the primary focus of Prime Minister Hinds. He should get rid of all the inept PPP cronies from GPL before asking the opposition to approve $5 billion more. The more money GPL gets from the taxpayers, the more blackouts will occur from this poorly run and mismanaged entity.
What GPL really needs is a team that is primarily focused at the highest level to cut the losses. This can only be done by shaving the commercial thieves off the national grid and axing its Chairman, CEO and the non-functioning board.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

 

 

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