Government will appoint a substantive chief executive officer for the Guyana Power and Light Company when the time is right but in the interim, Executive Management Committee Head Kesh Nandall will be responsible for answering questions on issues relating to the utility company.
“Mr Kesh Nandlall was appointed as Head of the EMC … he is the person you can call at any time,” Prime Minister Mark Phillips told the Stabroek News on Friday when contacted.
“Government in due course will appoint a CEO of GPL,” he added. Asked about an expected timeframe for the “due course”, the Prime Minister said he did not want to go into that but repeated that Nandlall should be available for all queries from the press.
Nandlall was appointed head of the EMC back in September of last year as substantive CEO Bharrat Dindyal had been relieved of his duties because of personal health matters. Minister within the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar had last November said that Dindyal was relieved because of ill health. This newspaper understands that Dindyal’s contract came to an end last year and it was not renewed.
While the GPL has had an executive management team for the last 10 plus years, the EMC was formed in September and Nandlall was appointed head. It is unclear why a substantive CEO was not sought.
Following a series of recent blackouts which has seen the ire of citizens, President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday met with the Board of Directors and management of GPL, Power Producers and Distributors Incorporated (PPDI) and Wärtsilä at State House.
An Office of the President statement said that the President expressed his dissatisfaction with the entity’s performance while acknowledging the myriad problems inherited, the exponential growth in demand, aged assets, and lack of redundancy in transmission. A follow-up meeting was held by the President later in the day.
Minister in the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar, who was present at the meeting at State House, had told reporters that the representatives of GPL, PPDI and Finnish company Wärtsilä were read the riot act over the ongoing problems. Indar said that “serious adjustments” would be coming but had declined to say what exactly these would be.
The OP statement had pointed out that it was important to note that the government has already engaged UK Export Finance (UKEF) to explore financing options for the transmission for the utility company.
Additionally, the President asked GPL to consider alternative options to provide bridging energy to meet the demand while waiting for the completion of the gas-fired power plant.
