Another hit- from Guyana: Land of Six Peoples

Is the proposed unserved areas electrification programme affordable?

Consumer Concerns
By Eileen Cox
Stabroek News
May 27, 2001

On Tuesday, May 22, Michael Richards, writing in the letter columns of the Stabroek News, referred to the provision of cellular service by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Ltd (GT&T) and the company's neglect to provide land lines. In front of me I have the name of an active social worker who applied for a telephone in April 1995, and to date has not been supplied. There are many, many such persons who have applied for the service and remain dissatisfied with the neglect of the company to supply same.

Mr Richards also reminded President Jagdeo that when he handed in the name of his candidates for the March elections he included the breaking of the telephone monopoly as one of his objectives.

Consumers continue to complain against GT&T without relief. Now, complaints against the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL), another monopoly, are mounting. Outages are a regular feature, without warning. Banks and big companies are being notified that they owe the company millions of dollars because the wrong multiplier was used. If a seller makes an error when selling his goods, the accepted principle is that he must bear the loss and not call on the buyer to make additional payment.

The GOG/GPL/IDB Unserved Areas Electrification Programme(UAEP) deserves close scrutiny. Ten villages are told to prepare for power now. Here's how. There follows a list of six things to be done. The list includes:

"An applicant must have his house/business place wired and inspected by a qualified electrician;

Get a Government Electrical Inspector's certificate from the Ministry of Works;

You are required to pay a customer contribution of $10,000 plus a refundable security deposit."

The cost of wiring a house is a minimum of $15,000 to $20,000, the inspector's certificate will be another $5,000 or thereabouts, the customer's contribution is something new. Who has ever heard of a consumer paying a big business, or any business, a contribution? I am told that this sum of money is added to the capital of the GPL and, on it, GPL will be able to claim 23% interest. How can anyone say that the agreement made by the government with GPL was fair to the consumer?

Those consumers who wish to be supplied with electricity in their homes under the UAEP will have to make an outlay of more than $40,000, a large sum for persons in rural areas. In addition they will have to travel to one of the GPL's commercial offices at

- Strand, New Amsterdam
- Hampshire, Corentyne
- Corriverton, Corentyne

To make an application for the new service.

Further, to obtain a certificate from the Ministry of Works here in Georgetown is not an easy matter. The consumer has to visit the office two or three times to receive the necessary document. Is it going to be any easier in New Amsterdam?

At the base of the full page advertisement we see:

GPL/GOG - Powering the future

For those who do not know, GOG stands for Government of Guyana

I ask you: Is this scheme affordable?

GPL should be brought to book and made to answer for the sloppy service that it is offering consumers. When a consumer delegation visited the Main Street Office some months ago we were informed that consumers would no longer be receiving inflated bills as any bill reflecting much more than the normal charge would be carefully checked. Yet today consumers are still complaining about bills that bear no relation to their normal consumption of electricity. A senior citizen recently reported that she received a bill for $29,000 when she burns only two bulbs and has been paying her bills monthly. These extraordinarily high bills cause great anxiety to elderly consumers.

Consumers call on the government to examine the service provided by GPL and to carry out a survey in the areas listed for electrification to determine whether the scheme is really affordable. With 50,000 customers, and $10,000 from each customer, GPL will be collecting $500,000,000 as capital. In addition, the company may be collecting another $500,000,000 as security deposits, refundable, yes, but refundable, when?

To top it off, the company will be charging for meters and goodness knows what will be the sum demanded.

Inasmuch as it amounts to expropriation, the charge "customer contribution" is said to be illegal, whether or not it is in the agreement between the Government of Guyana and the Guyana Power and Light Inc.