Five recent incidents of theft of cable from Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) ‘land line’ installations in sections of the city would appear to signal the return of the ‘bad old days’ of 2006 when persistent theft of the company’s copper-based cable sparked tough official measures against the country’s scrap metal industry.
Stabroek Business has learnt that the utility company’s installations have been hit mostly in areas of south Georgetown over the past two weeks and that the recent spate of thefts has resulted in urgent talks between the company’s security officials and the office of the Prime Minister. Head of GT&T’s security operations Edgar Blackman who spoke with Stabroek Business shortly after leaving a meeting at the Office of the Prime Minister said that the consultations were designed to try to put measures in place in an effort to curb the resurgence of cable theft.
Just over a year ago government moved to rein in the incidence of cable theft by imposing tough measures against scrap metal dealers who are believed to be in league with the thieves. Those measures included a ban on the export of scrap metal which ban was partially lifted earlier this year. Blackman declined to comment on the substance of GT&T’s discussions with the Office of the Prime Minister but did not rule out the possibility that the industry could come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the most recent spate of thefts.
Apart from the fact that copper is one of several non-ferrous metals the export of which is still under an official ban, utility companies are now empowered to inspect containers of ferrous metals prior to shipment overseas. Blackman conceded that with these safeguards in place, the recent upsurge in cable theft could be a signal that the illegal export of scrap is on the rise. Stabroek Business has learnt that scrap is now being moved illegally across all of the country’s borders and that in the case of the Guyana-Venezuela border smugglers run lucrative oil-for-scrap deals.
Meanwhile, GT&T’s Public Relations Officer Allison Parker told Stabroek Business that losses to the company in 2007 resulting from cable theft could be as high as $29m. Parker said that the cost of cable thefts had to be counted both in terms of the cost of the cable as well as the cost of having it replaced. She said that the persistence of the thieves is reflected in the fact that in one instance thieves struck a second time at the identical installation making off with the replacement cable even before the installation work had been completed.
Parker said that since there were limits to what the company could do to police its installations, a great deal depended on the public spiritedness of residents in the areas where the thefts were taking place. According to Parker the company had been unable to secure a great deal of helpful information from residents of the areas in which the recent thefts had taken place.
Meanwhile, GT&T appears to have taken an internal decision to step up its public relations efforts to secure the support of citizens for the protection of its installations. Stabroek Business understands that the company is to launch a public information blitz shortly to persuade residents to report attempts to remove cable.
