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My attention was drawn to a statement by the Prime Minister (PM) Mark Phillips entitled “David Patterson should acquaint himself with the truth”. The PM’s statement was in response to a letter which I penned and was carried in both SN and KN since May 2021. Yes, it has taken the PM almost 18 months to respond, that is about the same time it takes an average student to complete a postgraduate degree, so one would have expected that at least, having taken this lengthy time to research and pen his response, it would have been scholarly – Unfortunately, this was not the case.
In his long overdue response, the PM claimed that I failed to publish our Development and Expansion Plans other than the years 2016 – 2020 – quite untrue. However, the main takeaway would be that our plan worked!! The PM can boast everyday about publishing plans, which in the end are not worth the paper it is printed on, since blackouts have increased several-fold under his stewardship.
The PM proceeded to boast that the Power Utility Upgrade Programme (PUUP) was birthed under the PPP in 2014 – quite correct. But what he mischievously omitted to mention was the numerous fraudulent and legal challenges facing the program under the PPP by 2015. So much so, that the procurement process was scrapped and restarted under the [APNU+AFC] Coalition – it’s not the start of the race that matters, but how one finishes. It should be noted that by 2020 under the Coalition, generation capacity was increased by over 25%, technical and commercial losses were reduced by 5%, saving [Guyana Power and Light] GPL more than G$450M annually, a fact to which the PM openly admitted when questioned in Parliament.
The PM’s final two responses were equally disappointing – namely, that the several new generators procured and installed during 2015 – 2020, plus the fuel rebates offered by the Coalition, were due to the “significant reduction in the world fuel prices” – Duh! It’s not where we got the savings from that matter, but rather what we did with them. Every single penny was spent on improving the sector.
Guyana has now been blessed with an enormous increase of revenue; one would have expected that some of the revenues would be used to provide relief to our citizens. Sadly, no rebates on electricity have been offered to the citizens, in fact, the PPP has removed the 15 percent fuel rebate and five percent tariff reductions that the Coalition had in place in 2020 – so much for caring for the poor man – we did so much more, with so much less.
What is glaringly missing from the PM’s response is the answer to my almost 18 month’s old question – “What is your energy plan?” which should tell the nation “What are your plans to end the almost daily power outages?” “What plans do you have to stop a truck driver hitting a pole, which results in a countrywide blackout” – not a single word was mentioned in this regard. Further, the PM did not take the opportunity to enlighten the nation about the government’s plans to curb blackouts as we enter the Christmas season.
Some truths are self-evident – there is no workable plan for the sector. The proof is in the eating of the pie!! Or not based on the cost of living for our serving Public Servants!!!
