After a ninety-minute meeting yesterday, City Hall and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) were unable to reach any agreement to settle the municipality’s outstanding debt of some $600M.
Earlier the power company had disconnected electricity to the financially-strapped Mayor and City Council. However, Winston Brassington, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GPL, announced that electricity had been restored to the abattoir and the Liliendaal pump station. He added that consideration might be given to restoring power to the day care facility, but under no circumstances would GPL reconnect power to the municipality.
The meeting was held at the Privatization Unit.
A visibly displeased Mayor Hamilton Green said that he found the move by the GPL to disconnect the electricity as an unfair one. Green added that the municipality should have been contacted before GPL resorted to such action.
According to Green, the GPL owes City Hall some $781M, and the move by the power company reflects a deliberate attempt to punish City Hall and other important places of business. The mayor said that he found it “quite ironic” that GPL in a release to the municipality said it would not disconnect street lights which account for a bill of about $488M but it has disconnected electricity from the Liliendaal pump with a bill for $83M.
Chairman Brassington stressed, however, that the council had left the electricity company with no alternative but to disconnect its power supply since all of its correspondence to the municipality had been ignored.
“Not only do you not want to pay, but for over a year we have gotten no response from you on the way forward even though several letters were sent to you,” Brassington stated.
Town Clerk (ag) Yonnette Pluck who was also at the meeting said, however, that the council has always responded to correspondence sent by the electricity company. Pluck said that although the two sides have pending matters before the court, City Hall had never failed to respond to any letter sent by GPL. She charged that it was GPL in fact that had failed to respond to correspondence sent by the municipality.
The chairman noted, meantime, that GPL has a financial responsibility to ensure that its records and accounts are properly settled.
As the bickering between the two sides continued, the mayor pointed out that the power company has unsettled financial records with the municipality to which it owes taxes.
A subsequent statement from GPL said that it does not owe the M&CC $700M as reportedly stated by a city official. It says its records show an outstanding balance of rates and taxes to date of $113M. GPL said its annual rates and taxes amounted to $22M while the annual power bill for the city is $180M
GPL willing
Brassington noted that the GPL is willing to do an exchange of cheques for its balance owed to City Hall but under the condition that the electricity company be exempted from repaying its outstanding balance with interest.
But the mayor interjected forcefully and pointed out that the municipality could not afford GPL such a privilege. Green said that the collection of interest by City Hall is a statutory obligation.
“You would have to repay with interest, this is by statute, unlike the interest of the power company which is commercial,” the City Mayor said.
Brassington then maintained that GPL could not continue providing electricity to City Hall and not be paid for it. He noted that the council is subject to the same consequence of being disconnected for outstanding payments as any other.
After some 70 minutes of the exchange, the chairman told the gathering that he needed to be excused to attend to other engagements. Realizing at that point that the discussion was heading for a deadlock, Brassington said that a subsequent meeting would “be called with officials from both sides where all the issues can be placed on the table in a bid to ascertain the way forward.”
Meanwhile, the mayor made it clear that the M&CC could not afford to repay its debt to the electricity company because a number of entities, including GPL, had failed in their civic obligation to pay their taxes to the municipality.
Green suggested that if the burden for the municipality is exacerbated by street lighting, then GPL should cut off the power there since areas such as the abattoir and the pump stations are of greater importance for the provision of electricity.
Royston King, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of City Hall, in an interview with Stabroek News had maintained that the recent move by GPL had severely affected the smooth running of its day to day activities.
King noted, however, that the power disruption was being alleviated through the use of a stand-by generator which allowed the daily duties of the various departments of the municipality to be executed. He explained, however, that the use of this alternative power had a direct impact on City Hall’s treasury in requiring expenditure for fuel.
