Great expectations
Editorial
The privatisation of the long-maligned Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) will no doubt raise sky high expectations of its successor company, Guyana Power and Light (GPL). But these expectations must be tempered with a radical dose of realism. There will be no overnight miracles and much back-breaking work lies ahead before blackouts and roller-coaster power fluctuations are just memories of a turbulent past. What GPL must do fairly quickly is to chart a quite distinct course from that of the old GEC and take the public with it. Under-capitalised, cash-strapped, over-staffed and poorly run, the GEC epitomised for both the state and consumers all of the worst faults of public sector enterprise. GPL must show early on that it is immune to these types of weaknesses and that it is able to provide quality service. It has been noted by consumer advocate Sheila Holder that GPL is not entering into service contracts with individual customers and much of the standards by which GPL is to be measured is imbedded in the generalities of its licence and the attendant legislation. This should, however, not prevent the company from issuing a Consumer Charter which sets out what customers can expect. It should provide commitments on applications for service, connections, disconnections, billing, handling of queries, evenness of power supply, clear and straightforward procedures for compensation where equipment has been patently damaged by erratic power supply and explain the current tariff schedules. GPL should also lay out quite soon a detailed work programme for the rest of 1999, 2000 and beyond. Such a programme should elaborate on the obvious areas. These are: upgrading the rundown transmission and distribution system, ending load shedding in Georgetown and its environs, rectifying the 50/60 cycles anomaly, improving the billing service, ensuring that front office staff are customer friendly (the stories about uncaring and boorish staff at the old GEC are legendary), computerising its systems, making certain its accounts are in order and efficient collections are made and proceeding incrementally with a rural electrification programme. Besides the Demerara Interconnected System, a priority area must be the Berbice grid which continues to be plagued by rampant blackouts because of unreliable equipment. Some new significant generating system must be dispatched to this region to alleviate the power blues there. Above all, GPL must not shy away from going directly to the public and utilising the various media to explain its programmes and defend itself from the criticisms that will certainly come its way. Over many years, Guyanese have had to put up with a concoction of bizarre happenings that were not properly explained (remember the act of god statement?), stony silence and inadequate information - aside from the customary press releases with the barest details. This has been a very difficult privatisation and for the first time in many years the management of the power generating network is solely in the hands of overseas interests. After literally decades of false hopes and broken promises, the public needs desperately to be reassured that it is an equal partner in this process and through openness and frankness GPL can help to accomplish this.
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