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NDCs, Govt. among biggest culprits in paying electricity bills
It appears that Government and a large number of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) are among some of the more delinquent payers of electricity bills.
GPL officials during the hearings yesterday.
The issue has forced the state-owned Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) to write the Ministry of Communities and Ministry of Finance on the tardiness.
The disclosures were made yesterday by GPL’s officials to Public Utilities Commission during a public hearing at Cara Lodge on the entity’s Operating Standards and its Performance Targets last year. PUC is the regulator for utilities.
During the hearing yesterday at Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, it was disclosed that while GPL has set 30 days to collect its receivables from customers and others, on average it only managed 37 days. However, it did better in paying suppliers and others for services. It managed this in 25 days, instead of the 26 days it had targeted.
According to Divisional Director- Finance, Loris Nathoo, the 37 days for collecting its monies would have been an improvement of the average 40 days.
Questioned, GPL’s Chief Executive Officer (ag) Renford Homer, noted that improvements in bill distribution and more efficiency in connection have played a role in the improvements.
Consumer advocate, Pat Dial, speaking with GPL’s chief, Renford Homer yesterday after the public hearings.
However, it was noted that the timely payment of Government accounts and in some cases no payments at all from NDCs have been affecting GPL’s targets.
Unless this issue could be fixed, Homer believed that 30 days period would be difficult to achieve.
PUC would be keeping a close eye on the collection standard as GPL would badly need the monies to pay for supplies of fuel, spare parts and services. Any disruptions could affect the delivery of services.
It was pointed out that the problem of NDCs and Government not paying their electricity bills would have to be taken in context of the fact that their respective annual budgets would include allocations for electricity.
GPL also disclosed that it is continuing talks with stakeholders on the issue of streetlight in some communities.
GPL’s officials pointed out that power company is merely responsible for supplying power.
overtime, because of security and other considerations, many coastal residents have opted to install their own street lights, using GPL power.
However, GPL has been finding it difficult to collect.
The NDCs, in the majority of cases, simply did not have money to pay. With more than 170,000 customers across the country, GPL has been under pressure to improve its services.
It has reached the point where there are now excess power to now fighting to keep its aging transmission and distribution working.
With transformers and meters decades old in some cases, GPL has unveiled an aggressive five-year plan to install smart meters and other technology to help reduce losses and isolate outages.
In terms of the current utility companies, GPL has the largest number of complaints filed against it.
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