PNC REFORM parliamentarian, Stanley Ming, says the chickens have now come home to roost as the government makes "feeble mumblings of protest" over electricity tariff hikes when it had stripped the watchdog body of its powers to deal with such increases in 1997.

The government in 1997 amended the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Act to enable the agreement with the investors in the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) to supersede the provisions of the act. This meant that the PUC had no say in rate setting for the utility now privatised. Consumers have had to stomach a number of tariff hikes; two last year to phase out the government's subsidy and from February 1, a 15.89% hike came into effect to permit GPL to earn its 23% rate of return.

Ming said the sudden and "draconian" increase in electricity charges imposed by GPL on the heels of the recent significant rise in bills over the last three months, following the removal of the government subsidy, will consign many Guyanese to penury and a "darkened existence."

The parliamentarian and businessman was reading from a statement at a press conference called by the PNC/R at Congress Place yesterday. The press conference was shared by attorney-at-law Raphael Trotman, Dr Faith Harding, General Secretary Oscar Clarke, Hamley Case MP and Lance Carberry.

According to Ming, the PPP/Civic regime must accept much of the blame and responsibility for "these wholly unjustified increases in electricity charges." The party is of the opinion that the dominant partner in GPL, CDC/ESBI, is simply using the carte blanche provided by the weak agreement entered into with the PPP/C government to raise charges astronomically and unilaterally without any fear of recourse to the PUC.

"We must remind citizens that the regulatory powers of the PUC, which incidentally was created by the PNC/R administration were deliberately watered down by this regime," Ming said.

It was pointed out that the GPL management "contemptuously" submitted it proposals to the PUC on January 28 then "calmly and callously" announced that the new rates would be effective from February 1. "The government has provided their partners CDC/ESBI with a cash cow," Ming said continuing, "in their greed, they are mercilessly stomping on the Guyanese consumer who has been left unprotected and defenceless by this uncaring government."

Ming noted that the regime entered into what he termed as "this ill-advised agreement" with CDC/ESBI in the face of strong criticism by the PNC/R, the Trades Union Congress and the consumer bodies. It was pointed out that Prime Minister Sam Hinds was prominent and vociferous in acting as a virtual point man and public agent for the foreign entity, rationalising and justifying GPL's every action despite rising public complaints and protests about its inefficient service and rates.

Ming said that GPL had not improved the quality of electricity supply nor had it reduced line-losses. Instead, he added, the situation has become worse since October 1999, yet GPL has the effrontery to demand that Guyanese consumers pay more for its own managerial incompetence and inefficiencies.

Ming questioned the purpose of the two government directors on GPL's board and wondered what they were doing to represent the nation's interest. He said that the party was calling on the two directors to speak out.

Trotman described the agreement between the government and the CDC/ESBI as a "sweetheart deal" and said that the government had now been put out of the house by the dominant partner who had taken up a new partner.

Carberry also questioned the role of the government's two directors on the board, wondering aloud whether the increases were discussed at the board level.

Ming pointed out that politicians should leave the matters of business to businessmen and only deal with political matters. According to him, the government was "incompetent" and could not make decisions such as the one made on GPL. He pointed out that even in the US the government called on experts to deal with certain business transactions.