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Govt. must come clean on details of energy projects – Ramon Gaskin
…convinced Guyanese will be saddled with more problems
By Rehanna Ramsay
Kaieteur News – Expediting huge sums of taxpayers’ dollars on projects that are touted to be for the benefit of the Guyanese public requires transparency and accountability.
This position held by several transparency advocates, has been iterated by former Chairman of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL)’s Board, Ramon Gaskin.
Former GPL Chairman and Economist, Ramon Gaskin
Gaskin, a transparency advocate and economist, believes that there is still some crucial information, as it relates to proposed energy projects that should be released in the public domain.
He was at the time responding to questions as it relates to government’s proposed Amaila Falls Hydropower Plant and the Gas-to-Energy projects which are being pushed as part of the State’s agenda to end Guyana’s blackout problems.
However, based on the information that is available in the public domain, Gaskin is among those who remain unconvinced that these projects will indeed provide a solution for the nation’s constant power outages. In fact, the economist opined that based on his calculations, the Amaila Falls Hydropower Plant and the Gas-to-Energy project will cause more problems for Guyanese than solve them.
He explained that while the cost of GPL’s current arrangement with Wartsila – the engineering company contracted to service the current generation system – is known, the same cannot be said for the proposed projects.
The transparency advocate asserted that “With Wartsila you are seeing what you are getting…that power system has been there since I was chairman in 1993. You know exactly how much you are getting per megawatt…”
He continued, “Whereas with the Amaila Hydropower Project, the government is claiming that it will generate 160 megawatts at the cost US$750 million. Do you know how much that is? It’s five times more than what we are paying now and how exactly we the citizens will benefit when the Chinese will own and operate it, is a complete mystery to me.”
He noted, therefore, that Government should come clean on the details related to the project. He reiterated the need for transparency and accountability in both proposed energy projects.
“There has been no feasibility studies for none of these projects… the Gas-to-Energy is to produce some 300 megawatts of power but what the government is telling us is this thing feasible,” he said.
Gaskin asserted, “How much will it cost us to put down and power that amount of energy and who will use it? That’s a tremendous amount of power which I’m pretty sure Guyanese would not be able to consume. Where is all this energy going? Why should state funds totalling US$1 billion go towards putting down a pipeline to bring gas to shore when we would not have the uses of it?”
He emphasised that this is reason why the information needs to be available to the public.
“We need the information on what the government is proposing; we need that information available, so we the engineering people, economic people and other experts can review and look at the numbers.” Gaskin added.
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