“Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is the famous quotation used by English Catholic peer John Dalberg-Acton, Lord Acton in an 1887 letter opposing the move to promulgate the doctrine of Papal infallibility. Well in Guyana, recent current events show just how fallible the loss-making power company is, in contrast with the absolute power and profit generated by consummate Chinese cuisine especially char sui, chop suey and chowmein preferably in an electrified setting, further lit up by revelations electrifying enough to fry many with a mega-jolt, see royal red and blow all fuses.
“Study the past if you would define the future,” Confucius cautioned 2500 years ago. The latest auditors’ findings of wanton irregularities published in the Stabroek News (SN) are downright shocking and illuminating. The popular New Thriving Restaurant, once described by a proud Chinese envoy as the best in the Caribbean, owed Guyana Power and Light (GPL) over $90M at the end of 2015 in a case stemming from stolen electricity.
Presumably this fast flashing figure would have grown to another mind-numbing power by now given that another well-lit year has passed of delicious dim sum, crisp Beijing sliced roasted duck and grilled pepper prawns. Black, are their financial books apparently, followed by the mushrooms and beans on the way out with many hungry patrons bent on a quick takeaway, some having grabbed the usual saucy get-away from work.
Judging from the glossy photographs of the grand opening of their latest, lavish branch, the wealthy Chinese-turned naturalized Guyanese owners of the glitzy eatery cannot be too worried about their staggering US$450 000 bill, considering their mouth-watering prices and sparkling chandeliers, countless lights and blazing strips to rival anything in shining Shanghai, glittering Guangzhou or radiant Tianjin. Incandescent and hardly fluorescent, brazen and bling, bright and bountiful. Indeed having worked here for two and a half decades, they must be extremely well-connected now, with enough Guyanese lines to trip up any ordinary user of an oil lamp or lowly candle, and cause a countrywide interruption, lending mighty meaning to the term, power couple.
Given the serendipitous site of the latest Providence business, it may seem like divine intervention no less that New Thriving was able to assemble the shining stars of the current administration that came to rule in the 2015 power shift, the former President and Absolut superpowers of the previous PPP/Civic regime – maybe recalling their fine feasts of Cabinet pork buffets, and those loyal patrons in between and below. They were all gathered in harmony under one dazzling roof far from Parliament, able to set aside their bickering and differences, and consume, converse and celebrate in catered conspicuous consumption. In this new Chinese Lunar Year of the Rooster, the establishment certainly has a lot to crow about.
The cathode and the anode, the positive and negative sides at either end of the country’s political battery hooked up to endless electrical circuits, courtesy the GPL. High-ranking diplomats, luminaries, movers and shakers, and their resplendent spouses happily sitting together, united in the national and universal love of Oriental food making light work of the sweet and sour, the sautéed beef, roasted fowl, spicy crustaceans and stuffed crab backs. Never underestimate the power of free Chinese food, is how a regular SN online commentator puts it.
Guyana’s President, David Granger LED from the front, speaking of the country’s green agenda and the various such opportunities for Chinese businessmen, hailing the entrepreneurs contribution to economic development. Well it was the Amazonia mall after all.
“This country has abundant lands which can be used for agricultural purposes and we have the potential to supply all the agriculture produce needed by all the local restaurants,” he said. “We would like to see all of our agricultural produce, everything that is being used by the New Thriving Restaurant, every bowl of rice, every leaf of lettuce, every breast of chicken, be produced right here in Guyana,” the leader added, urging the proprietors, Xiao Guang Zhao and Che Jian Ping to invest in agriculture and agro-processing so their adopted homeland can become the focal point for Caribbean food security.
Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Cui Jianchun did not boast of being a power broker. In brief remarks, he encouraged the pair to ensure that they assist with the social development of the country and to provide hope for all Guyanese, SN reported.
Even as the bodyguards and security forces probably shuddered at the sight of the nation’s most powerful people dining on a single floor, and a few hardy souls may well argue about who knew who, what, when and where, the sickening disclosures that came days later were enough to cause extreme cases of confirmed Chinese Food Syndrome. These symptoms often include a headache, skin flushing, and sweating, caused by the controversial food additive or monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavour enhancer E621.
Law-abiding citizens, braised and bruised while struggling to comprehend the latest 14 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) rates for electricity and water, are left to stumble longer in the dark, query rhetorically why their well-reimbursed Ministers in successive administrations do not pay such charges, and ponder the forensic developments at the GPL, which appears powerless against the best legal brains, stuck like the proverbial fly in a thick chicken and corn soup. Such questions are enough to drive the whole working class to also consider purloining power on the side, since as the experts concede, it takes only one big businessman to filch the electricity used by 500 small consumers.
GPL has spectacularly failed to get New Thriving and its operators like several giant delinquents to fork out the $50M payment of outstanding debt as ordered by the regulatory Public Utilities Commission (PUC) at the end of 2011, following deliberations on the complaint filed by New Thriving seven years ago.
The forensic study by Nigel Hinds Financial Services, part of an assessment of some 30 State agencies commissioned by the ruling APNU/AFC coalition, was submitted to the Government since August 29, 2016 but is yet to be officially released to the public. Maybe in keeping with the theme this oversight was meant as a media blackout, or a deliberate suppression of information, certainly obscured beyond the platform promises of transparency and accountability.
Subsequent to the PUC Order No. 5/2011, GPL wrote New Thriving on January 5, 2012 seeking the said sum of $49,6M and demanding an initial payment of $12,4M no later than four days hence, with the balance of $37,2M due by January 31, 2012. New Thriving instead took the matter before the Court on January 10, 2012 by appealing against the PUC decision. According to the investigators, the restaurant was then granted the privileges of continuing to receive electricity from GPL, not having to pay off any of the 24 months retroactive theft of billed charges, and settling only 80% of bills issued. Since the conclusion of the PUC’s Order the amount has risen like a fat steamed bun to in excess of $90M as of December 31, 2015.
Auditor Hinds pointed out that poor people are frequently hauled to the Courts for electricity stealing. “We also noted that from November 3, 2011 to March 19, 2015, 1,282 mostly lower income persons were arrested and placed before the Courts for theft of electricity; most of these matters are either pending or struck off ” the analysis said.
The New Thriving Restaurant is not alone and certainly in prominent company. A former GPL Director faces charges he conspired to steal $28M. Slamming GPL’s system for managing trade receivables as “loose and out of control,” the probe revealed that $5.6B will have to be written off as bad debt and warned that this is unlikely to be the end of the problem. It is enough to conclude those in charge of running the State agency suffered record prolonged losses of consciousness.
For the Non-Government Tariff Categories the audit cited multiple accounts with $65M outstanding balances. “The receivables extract, details the most errant non-government consumers and reflects laxity in the monitoring and collection policy by GPL in collection from customers with large balances outstanding” Hinds said. The situation is even worse with Municipalities, Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC) and State-controlled corporations.
The Mayor and City Council owes $1.2B, the Grove/Diamond NDC $126M, and other NDCs are collectively in arrears amounting to above $1B. Further, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport is in debt to the GPL of $358M, $252M is due from the Ministry of Public Works and the Guyana Water Incorporated measures about $1B late.
“We are of the view that a significant portion of the receivables are unrecoverable. Also, the receivables provision of 1.5% of turnover is wholly inadequate. Larger provisions, debt write-off and court action; along with other consequential measures are urgently needed to remedy this untenable situation,” the auditors declared.
Power losses at GPL were put at around 30 per cent in 2015 and remain high despite millions spent to cut technical and commercial slumps. PUC’s Chairman, Justice Prem Persaud estimated that non-technical depreciation cost the GPL $74B (US$370M) including electricity thefts in the last decade, based on a November 2016 article in Barbados Today.
This week, SN posted that the Government received the nod to proceed with the $4.6B pact awarded to a Chinese contractor for the rehabilitation of the low and medium voltage distribution network for the GPL, when the acting Chief Justice discharged an Order she had previously made for them to defend the selection.
The Order was granted based on an application by a rejected bidder, Fix-It Depot, which posited that the contract was given to China National Machinery Import and Export/China Sinogy Electric Engineering Co Ltd “in flagrant breach” of the Procurement Act and the bid invitation as it did not meet the tender evaluation criteria. Disagreeing, the State contended the applicant stood to gain nothing from asking the Court to quash the award to the Chinese conglomerate, as this would result in the contract having to be re-tendered. This process would last at least six months and could see Guyana losing access to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded multimillion-dollar loan and grant. The Court accepted the Government’s case that the project will renew and upgrade the electricity distribution network, which is hit by blackouts and line losses, causing inconvenience and hardship to citizens.
Writing to scholar and ecclesiastic Mandell Creighton, Lord Acton memorably pronounced, “I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you super-add the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
ID’s long hair is standing on end as she chews over the painful punishment and unfortunate fate of any Guyanese electricity thief caught stealing in Peking, and Plato’s pithy observation “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
