Dear Editor,
I commend the GWI, and its Customer Service Manager, Mrs. Thomas, for making public the names and accompanying photographs of meter readers slated to visit areas on the East Bank Demerara. I think this is an extraordinary step that comforts citizens, and one that should be continued by the GWI, as well as followed by other entities.
Then there are these strong differences (disputes?) between some businesspeople and the Government Food and Drug Department (FDD). Some have complained that the latter is discriminatory. In response I say pause and appreciate that the business population, especially in this particular area of food products, is overwhelmingly, if not wholly, of a single ethnicity.
Thus, Mr. Marlon Cole of the FDD will collide with that claim for merely giving a hard cold stare. He has his work cut out for him, given the standards of before, where either laxity; or where reaching above introduced superseding authority to remove bureaucratic stoppages and relief from strict compliance, if such were the case.
Still, I recommend to Mr. Cole that he consider spending the time to have a full-fledged, no-holds barred, one-time meeting with those impacted principals, if only to lay out the nuts and bolts of his own concerns, and what the expectations and procedures are going to be.
This is more productive than the ad hoc, piecemeal, reflexive exercises of putting out press fires involving roiling claims and counterclaims. I further suggest that the press be invited to bring about wide ventilation and coverage of what was presented, discussed, and resolved. In this way, there can be a meeting of the minds, and matters are put to rest.
Next, every now and again, I read of Customer Service enhancements at the GPL Inc.
Things look encouraging on paper; they would be much better if reality reconciled with these GPL writings. For example, the people who answer the phones at the Call Centre could be trained to sound as if they welcome callers, and are there to guide and assist, instead of coming across as though they are doing the public a favour, and have no great interest in the delivery of something called quality.
Last, I ask the GPL to read the meters. I have written twice before about this, and almost a year later, I am still to behold a meter reader. Perhaps the GPL is doing so by laser or satellite. I should say that whatever is being done to arrive at estimated usage it is a far cry from the actual. Having publicized this issue twice before, I wonder where is the pride and professionalism in the management of the GPL to let such a state continue. Where is the justification for the presence of a whole lot of people?
Now I have one last recommendation: pay me six million dollars a month and I would read every meter in this country on a timely basis. And all on my own. Guaranteed! I submit that that is efficiency and standards of a very high order. Who over there wants to take me up? Step up and bring the money.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
