…as vehicle-purchase scandal, 12% pay hike to directors rattle company
Workers at the state-owned Guyana Power and Light are calling for a thorough investigation into the management of the power company in light the scandalous purchase of vehicles from an entity being run by the chairman of the GPL board.
Workers have also set their faces against the 12% pay hike awarded to directors and threatened to intensify industrial actions.
Last week GPL workers staged a short protest action in front of the company’s Main Street office pressing for better wages and working conditions.
Speaking under conditions of anonymity, a worker at the company said that GPL’s statement last week in response to their protest did not address the the issue of semi-sports model vehicles. “The press statement did not refute that the vehicles were purchased from a franchise company that has license’s to sell on behalf of Kia Automotive, and whose operations are headed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors at GPL,” the staff member said, adding that by its silence on the matter GPL is clearly telling its readership that there is nothing wrong with Chairing a Board of one Company and approving purchases of vehicles from another company – of which both companies Mr Gajadhar is directly related to and has management oversight. “This gross conflict of interest, is a matter of interest, and the Auditor General should probe this issue, it is vivid for all to see, that the Chairman who has access to all the hidden fine prints concerning bidding for the vehicles would have gotten an advantageous point over the other bidders. Notwithstanding the cost for the Semi-sports model vehicles which are approximately over 15 million dollars,” the staff member pointed out.
Alluding to the GPL press statement, the staff member said it further suggests, that the Company’s Directors were not paid an automatic 12% increase. “If so, what were the percentages of increase paid to those directors whose contracts were renewed between November and December? If not automatic increase, what was the yardstick used to measure their performances? Why would you tell the staff at a meeting of the Union, that the purchase of mask and the construction of sporadic sinks within the company left the management without money, but in the year 2021 you have brand new cars?”
Meanwhile, the Alliance For Change (AFC) said it has noted the many disingenuous attempts by the PPP/C and their cronies who have been appointed as Directors of State Boards and other high offices to wiggle their way out and put a spin on revelations of malfeasance. “At the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) it may be that reports in the public domain of Directors about to give themselves a twelve percent increase in remuneration that put an end to that plan.
The futile attempt by the Corporation to excuse the purchase of two new luxury vehicles purportedly for use by Divisional Directors of GPL is callous and shows the contempt the Board and the CEO of GPL have for the ordinary workers of the company and the people of Guyana,” AFC MP Juretha Fernandes read from a prepared statement on Friday.
Fernandes said at a time when GPL is making excuses to pay workers a salary increase, the company is buying brand new vehicles for its senior management. “Such decision making practices show the lopsided interest the present corps of executives have and is reminiscent of pre 2015. We remind these executives that it is primarily the ordinary workers who keep power generation going and it is the ordinary workers who collect revenue for GPL.”
Fernandes said on one hand GPL bosses and the PPP are decrying the high cost of fuel but on the other hand GPL which falls under the purview of the Prime Minister is purchasing new vehicles. “Clearly priorities need to be realigned at GPL. There are also questions of impropriety as one of the Directors is a manager at the company that bid to provide the vehicles. This is a clear case of conflict of interest and shows the total disregard the Board has for corporate good governance.”
