Cabinet has approved a Board of Directors for the government-controlled Power Producers and Dis-tributors Incorpora-ted, which is responsible for providing operations and maintenance services for the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL).
In January, 2017, the company replaced the Finnish firm Wärtsilä, which had held a contract for the services from 1994 until 2016.
At a post-Cabinet news conference, Harmon said the board comprises Mark Bender as Chairman, Aaron Fraser as Vice Chairman, Attorney Ronald Burch-Smith as Secretary, Chartered Accountant Harryram Parmesar, Attorney Stephen Fraser, Amanza Walton-Desir, Verlyn Klass, as well as a member of the opposition and the Permanent Secretary of the Public Infrastructure Ministry.
Harmon described the formation of the company as a win-win situation as it shows government’s confidence in local talent and allows the power company to save money.
Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson had said that the company, which was established late last year, assumed management of the GPL supply stations with effect from January 1, 2017, taking over from Wärtsilä.
Speaking at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s 2016 performance review in January, Patterson said the new company was fortunately able to retain all of the local Wärtsilä employees, who would be augmented with other workers that have returned from overseas.
“From January 1st the company has been in full control of the Wärtsilä engines.
This, as I said, affords the ministry and government a unique opportunity at expanding its services,” he said, while pointing out that the headquarters of the company will be held in the same building used by Wärtsilä.
“…And GPL will have a contract similar or on better terms that existed between the two [Wärtsilä and GPL].
The services are the same, the training mechanisms will have been enhanced and the maintenance schedules will be enhanced,” Patterson added.
