The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) said it is losing some Gy$2 billion annually from theft of electricity, but it needs a larger and more trustworthy group of technicians to police the problem. In a recent interview with Guyana Times International, GPL Chief Executive Officer Bharat Dindyal spoke of the amount of corruption that continues to hinder their programme to arrest rampant electricity theft. He said that it was not only places such as Sophia and Berbice where electricity theft is rampant, but a number of businesses were engaged in this illegal activity.
GPL Loss Reduction Director Kumar Sharma stated that investing in meters and interface that support real time reporting is a necessity to curb corruption and theft. Sharma stated that “Sophia may be stealing one fifth of what we are losing from businesses”.
GPL Chief Executive Officer Bharat Dindyal
He went on to say that the large increase in business theft can be traced, in part, to the amount of corruption within the service sector of the GPL. Sharma stated that there is definitely a problem with the large number of employee turnover in the service sector, “30 to 40 per cent of staff,” leave due to corruption allegations.
Sharma stated it is across the board and is exactly why GPL increased salaries of employees by eight per cent in 2012.
Sharma said due to corruption and theft, GPL will need to make major changes to upkeep its current programme to reduce losses. So far the company is unable to keep up with the advancement in criminal activity.
Sharma said as fast as GPL works to replace reading meters, the faster criminals work to find ways of bypassing the current operational interfaces. Furthermore, GPL is in need of budgeting for replacement of property due to environmental degradation.
As the New Year begins, GPL is working on replacing degraded material and is investing in building onto the current electrical grid in order to reduce the tension on the current network.
Meanwhile, on the operational side of the company, Dindyal said Guyana and the Chinese company Nation Machinery Import and Export Corporation signed a US$ 42 million deal dedicated to building a number of new power station facilities in Guyana in the hope of releasing the pressure of the current electrical grid.
“The priority is West Demerara where there is only one circuit and it is heavily overloaded,” Dindyal said. He stated that it was imperative that the current gird system be adjusted to accommodate the amount of house lots and new housing schemes being developed. It is the responsibility of the Housing Ministry to support projected budgets that will address the power needs of the new housing schemes. Dindyal stated that the Housing Ministry must come up with a plan well in advance and will need to find the budget to ensure GPL is able to add to the electrical grid.
