Bharat Dindyal back as GPL CEO

Dec 08, 2020 News

Kaieteur News – Bharat Dindyal has been reappointed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporation (GPL). He replaces Albert Gordon, who had held the position from February 2018.
According to a statement from GPL, the appointment of Dindyal forms part of the company’s plans to “modernize, expand and improve electricity supply in support of the development of Guyana.”
Dindyal has 26 years experience in engineering services and operation of electric utilities, and is no stranger to GPL having served as its CEO from 2006-2015.
Notably, during his previous tenure at GPL, Dindyal was accused of mismanaging projects. In fact, days after the Government had announced his termination, an explosive report revealed a battle that was waged within that state company.
The report by Former GPL Chairman, Winston Brassington, was dated December 22, 2014, weeks after the CEO had written the former PM to renew his contract. The report on Dindyal would be the first public disclosure of the power struggle within GPL which had come under fire for years now for spates of blackouts, high tariffs and costly projects that just could not reduce the amount of electricity theft that have caused losses.
According to reports, Dindyal was reportedly a power by himself, clashing with the Board of Directors, and mismanaging the multi-billion-dollar projects the company had embarked on. Brassington, in an evaluation report last December, recommended that Dindyal, a qualified engineer, not be rehired as CEO.
Dindyal had signalled his intentions to the Board of Directors that he wanted a renewal of his three-year contract despite earlier intentions to leave. He had even asked for a US$1,500 increase, on top of his $6.1M monthly pay, as part of his arrangements to stay on as CEO.

TEN GENERATORS
His poor management style had led to the write-off of at least 10 generator sets and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional monies being spent to fund projects, like the 26 megawatts Vreed-en-Hoop power station facility.
Dindyal had failed to return with a project summary of the Vreed-en-Hoop project, which foundation costs ballooned from $483M to $1B.
Among other things, it was reported that Dindyal had “treated the board with disrespect, refusing to carry out instructions or decisions of the board and instructed management to ignore board decisions”.
He failed to report to the board on a routine basis – in fact not submitting monthly reports or even major reports on key matters for decision. Brassington had even claimed that the Board was left in the dark on how well projects were being implemented.

AUTOCRATIC AND AD HOC
As a matter of fact, Dindyal had told the directors to leave him to do his work, as there was no technically competent person there to instruct him. He had even told this to the former Cabinet of Ministers under the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) regime.
“The CEO’s style of management had been autocratic and ad hoc leading at times to an almost dysfunctional level of organization,” the 25-odd-page evaluation report had said.
Dindyal’s style of management had caused former Director of Operations, Elwyn Marshall, along with Director of Projects/Operations, Colin Singh, to resign.

RENTALS
Dindyal’s mismanagement of GPL’s assets had also forced the company to shell out millions to rent Caterpillar engines, with customers also being forced to wait on explanations over what caused shutdowns. Brassington, also in the report, said that the former CEO’s remuneration was based on comparable rates being paid to CDC/ESBI, a former partner of GPL.