Dear Editor,
In reference to your news article, ‘Private sector criticizes Region 10 Chairman for objecting to presence at Linden talks,‘ (August 2), I am tempted to ‘go rogue’ on the PSC, which has suddenly found its voice after almost a decade of deafening silence as corruption ran amok during the period of the Jagdeo regime – a regime which appeared to have exerted unusual influence over the organization.
But I will refrain because I have previously noted the PSC’s commendable four-point recommendation for the President to consider on the Linden crisis, and now wish that the PSC would respect the regional representatives’ position that last Tuesday’s exclusive meeting between the President and the regional representatives was a continuation of one that ended days earlier with a promise to resume at a convenient time.
In addition, the PSC, being one of several stakeholders with a vested interest in the outcome of the Linden crisis, should also be supportive of having other stakeholders involved in meetings with the President and regional representatives at the appropriate time.
The President, for his part, also needs to continue being open to counsel from those other than his so-called paid presidential advisors, and while he seems readily amenable to suggestions from the PSC, he has to expand the aperture of his mind and extend the hand of cooperation to other stakeholders that are critical to a speedy and satisfactory resolution to the Linden crisis.
The Region 10 representatives made it clear that the TUC needs to be given a participatory role in future talks, because one of the major grouses of the residents in the community is a lack of employment since the government sold the bauxite operations to the Chinese Bosai Minerals company.
In fact, GTUC General Secretary, Mr Lincoln Lewis, has said that Linden has a 70% unemployment rate, and since government is yet to refute this figure, it begs for an explanation from government why it would rush to end the electricity subsidy to Bosai, thus forcing Lindeners to pay more for a service in circumstances where no one even knows if the rates were fairly set, since the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was never involved. This is why any talks between the President and regional representatives should involve relevant stakeholders and not just the PSC, and why the PSC has to stop behaving like a spoiled brat.
Meanwhile, I want to renew my call for a review of the agreement reached between the government and Bosai for the supply of electricity to Linden to determine how the rates were set. Since the PUC was not involved in the rate-setting process, it is imperative for all concerned stakeholders to help determine the costs Bosai is incurring from generating and supplying electricity, not for its operations, but for Linden consumers.
Stakeholders have to now play the role of the PUC to ensure fairness, because when the government ignited the flames of fairness – quickly fanned by its supporters – calling for Lindeners to pay the same rate as other Guyanese, the government left out critical details about how the rates for Linden were set. Moreover, the government failed to tell the nation that the reason why GPL customers have been paying a higher rate than Linden was because of GPL’s ongoing mismanagement and waste, which produced higher operating costs that have been passed on in the form of increased rates to consumers.
For example, GPL reportedly rents Caterpillar generators forUS$720,000 in a year when the same generators cost US$900,000, and the GPL reportedly loses 40% of its electricity to line losses and theft. Why then should Lindeners be made to pay the same rate as GPL customers if the Linden power company does not have the mismanagement and waste problems that GPL does?
And as a reminder to readers, the decision to reduce the Linden subsidy was taken only after the parliamentary opposition cited mismanagement and waste when it cut GPL’s budget by $1B during the 2012 Budget debate, and it immediately raised suspicion that Linden alone was being targeted for retaliation by government because not only does the community not get electricity from GPL, but it voted overwhelmingly for APNU, which had agreed to the reduction in the subsidy before reversing itself under public pressure.
Unless enough Guyanese make a strenuous effort to be properly informed about the facts surrounding the Linden crisis and help spread the truth, they will continue to be misled by the misinformed who are engaging in dangerous political gamesmanship.
Going forward, the President would do well to go to Linden (belatedly) and meet with the regional representatives and all stakeholders with a vested interest in the outcome of the Linden crisis. It’s time to dump the presidential advisors who get high six-figure salaries in no-show and space-occupying jobs.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
