Opposition Member of Parliament, Juan Edghill this evening in the National Assembly tabled a motion calling on the Government to inform the public and the House of the causes of and measures it will be taking to ameliorate the frequent widespread and unscheduled power outages that the country is experiencing.
Edghill called on the Government to bring to the House, the International Development Bank (IDB) Energy Mix Study and to table the Norconsult report on the feasibility fact-based assessment of the Amaila Falls Hydro-Power Project, and all other studies relating to Guyana’s wind, solar, hydro, ethanol, bio-fuels and any other form, of energy potentials, within two weeks and send to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee to scrutinize and return to the National Assembly with recommendations within two months.
The Opposition MP pointed out to the House that the aforementioned was “accidentally” omitted from his original motion; hence he moved that it be amended to include that critical aspect.
Edghill reiterated the Opposition’s stance that the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project is Guyana’s only source of reliable electricity.
The motion states that “GPL is in recent times being plagued by frequent widespread and unscheduled power outages affecting production and productivity in all sectors.”
It also highlighted that the power company has benefitted from significant investments through loan agreements, grants from international developmental partners and injection of public funds for its expansion and development.
The Opposition argued that the imposition of VAT on an already unreliable supply of electricity “will only aggravate the frustrations people are experiencing and further disincentivise the productive and business sectors”.
Edghill pointed to the fact that as a result of these constant unscheduled power outages many people lose valuable appliances, without any form of redress.
According to the Opposition MP, neither GPL nor the Government has offered any acceptable explanation; hence the debate on the motion provides an opportunity for Government to provide suitable answers.
He called out Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson regarding his input in meeting GPL’s commitment to the people, pointing out that neither the company nor the Government has informed the public after 19 months, of what its long term strategy for this sector is.
The motion further calls on the “GPL and the Government to abide by the procurement laws of this country and ensure that contracts are fairly and transparently awarded so that the programmes in place for this sector can proceed with no further delays.”
Government is also being called upon to unveil its long-term strategy for this sector through a national consultative process without further delay.
