CHIEF Executive Officer of the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL), Mr. John Lynn yesterday said the crisis-plagued firm was moving towards a position where it can satisfy its customers with an efficient and uninterrupted supply of electricity.

GPL was working very hard to make the necessary improvements that customers were demanding, he said.

"We see ourselves moving towards a position where we can satisfy our customers with an efficient, uninterrupted supply of electricity," Lynn said in a telephone interview, amid widespread criticism of the company's poor performance.

In this regard, he said the company has embarked on a programme to have a new generating, distribution and transmission system.

Lynn said GPL has been speaking with some institutions, including the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support this improvement programme by the company.

The EIB, which is poised to play a more active role in Guyana, will be making available 20 million Euros (European currency) in financing for the power company.

Lynn yesterday said arrangements for the loan agreement were at an advanced stage and the deal is likely to be signed soon.

The 20M Euros will go towards acquiring a new generator and transmission system to improve the quality of electricity supply to consumers, he said.

He said too that a lot of hard work has been done but "is in the background, so to speak".

GPL has been repeatedly and severely criticised recently with questions raised about its huge management contracts, the level of services it provides consumers and its increases in rates and charges.

President Bharrat Jagdeo and other top Government officials have repeatedly criticised GPL about its services and prolonged power outages.

"We are a bit disappointed with the criticisms but at the same time we understand the customers demand for a better service," Lynn said.

GPL has already embarked on linking and renewing links among the several generation stations in Demerara and Berbice.

It also has an installed capacity of 131 megawatts but due to various defects actual output is 94 megawatts even as the load demand for power has grown by six per cent over the past two years.

The power company projects an output of 180 megawatts in another three years.

Meanwhile, on the EIB playing a more active role here, a press statement from the Delegation of the European Commission to Guyana and Suriname, said the bank has also been involved in the water sector in Guyana.

The statement, intended to give the public a better understanding of the institution, said the EIB's most recent project is the Rose Hall, Berbice water scheme.

It pointed out that the EIB, which is the financial institution of the European Union, has a mission to make available long-term finance for sound investment.

From as early as the 1960's, the EIB has been playing a proactive role in European development cooperation policies with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, supplementing with its loans the input of grant aid from the EU, the statement said.

In these countries, the EIB focuses primarily on mining, industry and agriculture and on upgrading infrastructure in the fields of energy generation and transmission, communications and water resource management.

In Guyana, the EIB has been closely involved with the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED). According to the statement, last year IPED benefitted for the second time from a half million Euro loan at a two per cent rate per annum.

The EIB, it said, is both an institution of the European Union and a bank which enjoys its own legal personality and financial autonomy while following strict banking practice.

As an institution of the EU, the EIB continuously adapts its activity to the development and changes in community policies.

As a bank it works in close collaboration with the banking community, both when borrowing on the capital markets and when financing capital projects.

The EIB grants loans mainly from the proceeds of its borrowings, which, together with "own funds" (paid in capital reserves), constitute its "own resources".

Outside of the European Union, the EIB financing operations are conducted principally from the bank's own resources but also from EU or member states' budgetary resources.

The EIB, unlike other banks, does not command resources drawn from current accounts or deposits; instead the bank raises its resources on the world capital markets.

The bank uses its active presence and its issuing techniques to mobilise significant volumes of funds available on competitive terms.

The statement said too that the bank operates on a non-profit making basis and as a result, passes on to its borrowers the benefits of its excellent credit rating and so furthering the objectives of the EU.

While the EIB was set up mainly to address the development needs of EU nations there has been significant investment in non-member states, it said.

The bank's terms of reference outside the union are determined by multi-annual mandates entrusted to it by the EU, accompanied by a mechanism guaranteeing, on an overall basis, 65 per cent of outstanding lending.

This guarantee is designed to cover the political risk attached to the operations. The guarantee decision taken by the council in 1999 will enable the bank to advance more than 18 billion Euros in loans over the period up to until 2007 in Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region, Asia and Latin America and South Africa, the statement said.

Moreover, an additional 3.9 Billion is to be provided under the post-Lome system for the ACP countries. The bank has also renewed and extended its `Pre-Accession Facility' for the candidate countries, set up on its own initiative and at its own risk.

This second facility, the statement said, amounts to 8.5 billion and covers the period until 2003.

It was noted too that over the last 40 years EIB has been actively involved in efforts by the EU to forge closer links with the ACP nations and the bank plans to make a greater contribution to implementing the Cotonou agreement, the successor to the Lome Convention.

According to the statement, under this agreement the bank, for the first five years, will provide about 1.7 billion Euros in loans to finance private sector development in ACP states.

The EIB will also manage a 2.2 billion Euro EDF investment facility, which is aimed at stimulating development in the private sector of ACP states, the statement added.