Why no standby power for GPL’s New Amsterdam office during blackouts?

Dear Editor,

Kindly allow me, through the medium of your letter columns, to enquire of the Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Power and Light Company the reason it does not have an emergency power supply to facilitate its customers who visit the New Amsterdam commercial office to conduct business during a power outage.

I have visited the office on several occasions over the last two months to pay bills or purchase prepaid power, and had this frustrating and time-wasting experience – not only of customers’ time but staff also. Why, I ask, should a company that receives billions of taxpayers’ dollars in subsidies treat those who provide its very sustenance so disdainfully? I asked a senior member of the staff who came out of the building to get some fresh air during one of the outages, why there was no standby power and the explanation she gave was the most preposterous I have ever encountered; it was, she said, decided by the Board, that putting in place a generator would make the company look bad.

Editor, that explanation seemed so outrageous, I simply could not believe that persons tasked with running such an important public entity could make such a decision. Hence my letter.

Yours faithfully,

GND Williams