Management Fiasco at GPL Continues

Sep 12, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Italian painter, draughtsman, sculptor, engineer, theorist and architect Leonardo Davinci once said “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” Deception seems to be the answer the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) has in response to an article published by yours truly on Friday, September 1st 2023 titled “Management Fiasco at GPL.”

The article’s insidious response by the company begs more questions than it attempts to address. In essence, it is simpleton to its failures to manage a US$200million company. Remarkably, the board of directors and Prime Minister, in the capacity of Chief Ribbon Cutter (CRC), is acting through the unlearnt Corporate Communications Officer and playing Russian roulette with answers that the people of Guyana are seeking to understand. The core question is who is at the helm of management at Guyana Power and Light, since the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has been on an extended medical leave for more than a year and an amicable explanation for the constant power failures? The Communications Officer’s response that vehicular accidents and contractor equipment (excavators) have been the reasons for the daily power outages in the Demerara Berbice Interconnected system (DBIS) is pathetic.

In the 21st century, the Board of Directors and CRC Prime Minister are telling the Guyanese public that a drunk driver or a careless excavator operator is responsible for bringing down the total grid of a nation? If the unintended and benign actions of these individuals can produce catastrophic failure of the grid, then the nation should be very uneasy regarding sinister actors with dreadful intentions. This means that there isn’t appropriate grid security and protection. Typically, these types of electrical faults should be isolated or confined to a limited area where the fault exists and not permeate the grid manifesting in a total system failure plunging the entire nation into total darkness. Isolation and protection are how these types of faults are treated throughout the world. The absence of this ability simply means no isolation of these fault and GPL is operating in the stone ages of electrical grids. This pitiful response demonstrates the company’s inability and leaves much to be desired about whether the company has effective management or is it on rudderless autopilot.

Ms. Pindar would do well to make some qualifying remarks to address how long the CEO Mr. Dindyal has been on medical leave and how long the company plans to operate with this status, since it has been more than a year without leadership and refrain from producing these asinine responses. Additionally, she needs to qualify the CEO compensation package while he’s on medical leave, if it was misquoted in my previous article. On one hand, the response stated that the salary was misquoted, and on the other hand, it stated the CEO is not receiving a salary from GPL. There seems to be a degree of cognitive dissonance, which is causing confusion on the company’s part as to whether the CEO is getting a salary or not. If he is not getting a salary from GPL, then who is presently paying the CEO and how many individuals are being paid from that account? She did well to note that in the absence of the CEO and Deputy CEO Technical, there has been contingency plans that have been “endorsed and executed by the company’s Executive Management.” It would have done the company well to state what are these contingency plans and address whether these plans include an acting DCEO Technical that has questionable qualifications.

In keeping with the government’s nepotistic mantra of awarding jobs to “friends and family,” the company recently appointed Mr. Kesh  Nandlall as the Executive Team Leader, which is a dubious title to say the least, and directed all members of executive team that were serving in an acting capacity to revert back to their substantive positions prior to the CEO going on medical leave. Since there was no public announcement to the appointment of Mr. Nandlall, the company needs to come clean with his appointment and clarify the strategy to the tax-paying public. This is also a tragedy to Mr. Renford Homer, who has served as the acting CEO for more than five years, first when Mr. Colin Welch vacated the position, followed by Mr. Albert Gordon, and most recently Mr. Bharat Dindyal on medical leave.

In summary, my initial position in the primary article also alluded to the improbability of the Gas to Energy (GTE) project achieving its targeted goal of commissioning the 300MW power generation plan by December 2024. The public welcomes the news that of the planned upgrades to the grid to the tune of US$175million, but that was not the inquiring question. This was simply a means to obfuscate the issue. So, I will raise the issue once again, when will the 300MW power generation plant be production ready?  However, since the company chooses to raise the issue of US$175M in upgrades, I think the public should be reminded the company spent US$133M in upgrades to the grid between 2011 and 2015 and we still have drunk drivers or careless excavator operators plunging the country into total darkness. Perhaps we need to have a public accountability as to how the US$133M was spent and what the taxpayers actually got for it. Seems like another white-elephant project as in the case of the GuySuCo Sugar Factory where the taxpayers are burdened with US$200M in debt until the year 2033, and many other projects with a similar faith. It is not fair for this company to keep deceiving and insulting the intelligence of the Guyanese people. Simply put, Guyana needs a transformative change that will bring to bear an ideological realignment of our economics, political and social values and not a continuation of these nonsensical actions and responses.

Regards,

Collin Haynes MPH MBA

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• Chief Executive Officer, Collin Haynes, Guyanese, MBA, MPH

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