GPL profits marginal since 1999 – Lynn
Preparations underway for Xmas
By Nigel Williams
Stabroek News
November 29, 2002
Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated, John Lynn says the company’s profits have been marginal for the last three years despite what many might think.
Lynn made this statement while addressing the media during a tour of some of the company’s stations on Wednesday. According to him, for three years now the company has not declared dividends so the real rate of return to the shareholders has been nil.
Meanwhile, Chief Operations Officer of GPL, Paschal Buckley recalled that in 1999, the former Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) was producing 87.43 megawatts of power. He said at the end of the third quarter of 2002, GPL had a total installed capacity of 133 MW, and was distributing approximately 98 MW.
Paschal said current refurbishment of several pieces of machinery is scheduled for completion by mid-December to boost available generation to some 113.13 MW in time for the high demand of the Christmas season. Over the past two years, GPL has restored several machines that had been previously damaged and were lying dormant. Ten completely mobile Caterpillar generating sets were also imported and can be moved among the power stations whenever the need arose.
On the issue of expatriate managers continuing to hold the top positions in the company, Lynn said “we have made efforts to both locally and internationally recruit Guyanese people who would be interested in coming and work directly for GPL or indeed for the management company.
But, so far the response from Guyanese internationally has been very disappointing in terms of getting the people with the necessary expertise and experience to make the contribution that is necessary to drive forward the improvement of the electricity company.”
But he noted that there were many Guyanese within GPL who had very important positions and would continue to do so. He added that nothing would please him more than to see more Guyanese in senior positions.
Speaking about the lack of working streetlights Lynn said, “internationally electricity companies, by and large, are not responsible for providing street lights. This is a responsibility of the local government, Regional Democratic Councils and the Mayor and City Council.”
He said two sets of charges arise for streetlights. One is for the electricity used by the streetlights and the other one is for the installation of the lights and maintaining them. “But the fact is over the last three years the local administrations have not been paying either for electricity they use or for the maintenance of the lights. And GPL has taken a position that we would not do any work on the streetlights particularly to get them working.” Lynn said if nobody is prepared to pay for the electricity used then GPL would not do anything.
He pointed out that the situation has improved with the City Council and some of the other agencies, adding that for the past six to nine months they have been paying up their arrears. He mentioned that GPL has since spoken to some of those agencies. “But take it from me there is a whole lot of work involved and still a lot of money that is required in order to get everything going,” the CEO stressed.
Lynn was asked about the four Nigata generators which were donated to the Guyana Electricity Corporation by the Japanese Government prior to GPL’s takeover. It was suggested that the company was making profits on assets that belong to the state. He said, “the Japanese assets are not part of GPL’s assets. The ownership of those assets remains with the Guyana Electricity Corporation and GPL pays what you called usage fees to the GEC in respect of using those assets and there are mainly the Nigata generators two in Garden of Eden and two in Versailles.
They are not included in the asset base of the company and we are not getting any returns on them,” Lynn declared.
