| General Secretary of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Joseph Harmon, is of the opinion that the recent admission by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) that it is experiencing as much as 60 percent in commercial losses monthly, in some societies, underscores not only the need for the Chairman of the Board Winston Brassington to be fired for gross incompetence, but even for the other board members to be removed.GPL’s Chairman, Winston BrassingtonAPNU’s General Secretary, Joseph HarmonHarmon made this comment during a recent interview with this publication.He said that even the management team at GPL should be restructured. Harmon emphasized that the company suffering losses to such an extent is no fault that should be placed at the feet of the political opposition as was previously done.He said, too, that Brassington has been sitting at the helm of such an important company. Allowing it to reach to such a state without ensuring that the requisite measures be taken, should see him stepping down.“Such levels of gross incompetence should not be allowed to go on. Significant losses are being recorded and while it continues, they want to blame it on the opposition. They want to try to excuse their ineptitude by placing the spotlight on a misconstrued conception that we are not talking to our supporters or that we should speak to our supporters so they can pay their bills?“That is nonsense…They need to do their job. They are not sitting there to collect a fat salary at the end of the month while the rest of the paying customers have to bear the costs of those who are cheating the system,” the politician added.In an advertisement published in the media, the electricity company said that for the first quarter of 2013, it recorded the highest level of electricity loss and this was in the South Georgetown district.It said that it has 5501 accounts in its system, for the areas which are serviced by Feeder SF5. The area covers Tucville Well,Cheap Wholesale Jerseys, Sophia Well, South Ruimveldt Park east of Penny Lane, Festival City, North Ruimveldt,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, South Ruimveldt Gardens west of Penny Lane, West Ruimveldt,Cheap NFL Football Jerseys, East Ruimveldt, Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Guyhoc Park and Ebenezer Drive.These districts accounted for GPL’s losses.Following the area served by Feeder SF5, the next area with high electricity losses include the East Coast Demerara with losses at 43.9 percent within the Sophia to Coldingen area and 42.2 percent in ‘A’ to ‘E’ Fields in Sophia.Other areas with high losses include Coldingen to Bygeval with losses said to be at 37.1 percent, North Sophia to Success with losses at 34.4 percent.The area served by Feeder SF3 which includes parts of Prashad Nagar, Lamaha Gardens, East of Sheriff and South of Dennis Streets,China Jerseys Cheap, Norton Street, Princes Street, Tucville, Meadowbrook, Werk-en-Rust west of John Street, West La Penitence and part of Middle Road with losses pegged at 37.4 percent.As for those districts with losses in the 30 percent range, GPL said that these include those on Water Street between New Market Street and Avenue of the Republic and Brickdam where losses are at 36.9 percent.From Edinburgh to Lookout, Parika on the West Demerara, losses are 35.9 percent. In Wakenaam, the losses are 37.2 percent while in Leguan the loss is pegged at 30.7 percent. In Bartica, losses are 32.3 percent.GPL had also emphasized that all citizens should take heed and work to lower the losses reflected in their communities.The company ended up making such disclosures via a paid ad, after there were some harsh criticisms from the Opposition in relation to the opinions expressed by Prime Minister Sam Hinds over the electricity losses.Hinds had made comments to the effect that the Opposition coalition, APNU should try to encourage its constituents to pay their electricity bills.He said at the commissioning of the Ruimveldt station, “I call on (APNU) MP (Joe) Harmon to join me in bringing down the losses,NFL Jerseys China, the non-technical losses we are having (as there is) some 40 percent in areas to the South and West of Georgetown where he has political standing.”“Where total losses are down to 10 and 12 percent, we see areas in the South and West of Georgetown where losses are up to 60 percent; 20 percent technical and 40 percent non-technical…Let us start leading our people into the right things let us not make ambiguous statements,” Hinds had added.But Opposition Leader, David Granger,NBA Jerseys China, had sharply responded to Hinds’s recommendation. He not only labeled the Prime Minister’s statements to be “plain stupid” but also urged him to retract it henceforth.GPL subsequently came to the Minister’s defense via a two-page ad, and noted that it wished to categorically elucidate and refute the sentiments expressed opposition representatives.The power company said that Hinds spoke the truth and his statements were based on figures which were provided to Parliamentary Sectoral Committees in 2014.It said that the areas which were being referenced by the Prime Minister shows the total losses for the feeder in contention, SF5, is 60 percent with technical losses at 17.4 percent and non-technical losses at 42.6 percent.GPL said that this should be compared with the area served by feeder VH-F3 (Vreed-en-Hoop to Windsor Forest) which with 7104 customers – as compared with 5,501 customers – has a total loss of 9.8 percent; 9.6 percent technical and 0.2 percent non-technical.The power company noted that technical losses reflect those attributed to GPL’s network and non-technical losses are mainly electricity theft.The total number of customers within the zone of contention (SP5) is 5,501 and losses per customer amount to US$49 or $10,000 per month, GPL said.The company emphasized that the areas accounting for the 60 percent losses have some of the largest population densities. |
