New managers in place at GPL
by Robert Bazil
THE new managers of the Guyana Power and Light, Inc. (GPL), were yesterday reportedly in place at the entity's Main Street, Georgetown, head-office, formerly the Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC). Sources told the Chronicle yesterday that Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Noel Hatch and his colleagues were meeting key personnel and interacting with other staff. With respect to the role of members of the GEC Executive Management team, sources said that they will remain for four weeks as advisors to the GPL Manager at their own request, or at the request of the new entity. In an interim reporting structure set up, Senior Commercial Manager, Mr. Clarice Stanford will report to Manager Tom Mulcahy. Those reporting to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) are Personnel Manager, Mr. Dale Deroy; Training Manager, Mr. George Guilford; Administrative Manager, Mr. Yusuf Mandall; Internal Auditor, Mr. Looknauth Singh and Public Relations Officer, Ms Majorie Chester. On October 1, 1999, the operations of the Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) were transferred to GPL and the GEC executive managers were replaced. The advisors are not expected to hold substantive posts during their advisory tenure and their immediate subordinates will report to the ESBI Manager. These subordinates will remain in their current positions and will not be acting in the senior posts, the sources said. Recently announced responsibilities are, Chief Executive Officer, overall coordination of the project; Chief Financial Officer, managing the Financial, Secretarial and Administrative Divisions and Chief Operations Officer, managing all Operations Divisions. The Chronicle understands that Mr. Mursaline Sankar will be an advisor to the Chief Financial Officer for a period of four weeks. And, Mr. Neil Mercurius will act as advisor to the Chief Operations Officer, and, for the initial transition period, all routine operational reporting will be directed through him. All cash and cheques up to September 30, were deposited into GEC bank accounts, while all monies received from October 1, 1999 and thereafter would be banked into GPL accounts. The Government of Guyana and the foreign consortium, Commonwealth Development Corporation/Electricity Sector Board International of Ireland (CDC\ESBI), Friday evening ratified 59 legal documents, totalling 2,000 pages. The parties, at a Le Meridien, Pegasus Hotel function, completed arrangements for miscellaneous agreements, resolutions, legal consent orders and registered the new power company. The pact includes a number of initiatives for GPL to improve standards, and requires the management team of specialists brought here to undertake training of the local staff in a variety of utility operations. They also had to ensure that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Act and the Electricity Sector Reform Act (ESRA), which regulate operations in the power sector, came into force. CDC\ESBI, with a US23.45M offer, won the bid for the take-over of the local electricity enterprise.
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