– LOOK FORWARD TO QUICK LIBERALISATION
ON JUNE 21,Della Britton, a well-known Attorney-at-Law and serving Commissioner of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was sworn in as Chairman of the PUC by President Granger.  The Consumer Community, which from the inception of the PUC was fully involved in all its hearings, hereby extends a hearty welcome to Madame Chairman Britton, and as a stakeholder, again, we pledge our support to the Chairman and the Commission.

Britton is an experienced lawyer and had been exposed to other disciplines and skills when she took her Master’s Degree from Columbia University.  She therefore brings a rounded intellectual personality and tested ability to the Chairmanship. During the time Chairman Britton served as Commissioner, the Commission had to adjudicate on several difficult and complicated issues, especially in respect of the Telecommunications Utility. In these deliberations Chairman Britton saw at first-hand the knowledge, capability and professionalism of her fellow Commissioners.  She also saw how helpful and able were the staff of the Commission.

In her acceptance speech, she underlined this when she remarked: “We do have a dynamic group of professionals and the Commissioners are all capable of fulfilling their mandate, as all have years of experience and are professionals … Our duties are strict under the Legislation and because they are strict we have mandatory obligations to the Consumers, the Utilities and to the Minister.” With this excellent PUC infrastructure she inherits, she will immediately start working.

The liberalisation of the Telecommunication Sector is the first challenge Chairman Britton will encounter and she is well-prepared to meet it.  “Plans are afoot as of now to have all things in place before liberalisation would have come into force,” she said. In getting ready for liberalisation, the PUC will have to engage new personnel to assist in the process.  Such personnel would be best available in Guyana.

Chairman Britton has promised to work closely with the Minister of Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes who would be leading the liberalisation process. The liberalisation legislation which came into being last August has several new requirements, but the core of it concerns is the ending of the ATN/GTT monopoly of the Telecommunication Industry.  The liberalisation is expected to be completed by the end of July 2017 and this had been set as the deadline and, the public is looking forward to this in much expectancy.

Minister Hughes however pointed out that before the liberalisation process is complete, a number of issues have to be resolved and this may go beyond the end of July, but that consumers and the public need not be alarmed since the process is moving in a straight line towards conclusion.

The main issues which are in the process of being resolved are the engaging of a suitable consultant to advise on spectrum management and pricing, since in the past GTT enjoyed free or almost free spectrum and since the National Frequency Management Unit now comes under a new  agency.  GTT, on its side, is concerned with the pricing of spectrum and the process by which applications for new licences are received. In addition to these, ATN/GTT has a number of other issues still to be resolved which are of the nature of dismantling the monopoly and the payment of monies they owe to the Guyana Revenue
Authority(GRA).

Minister Hughes has reported that negotiations on all outstanding issues are going well.
It is not expected that the Telecoms Minister and ATN/GTT would make public the process of these negotiations but this, however, does not preclude the GCA from giving its take on information which is already in the public domain.  In this regard, there are three issues of which the negotiators would be reminded:-
(1) GTT has publicly stated that the Liberalisation Act was ending the Monopoly which they regarded as their private property, and for which the Government of Guyana (GoG) must duly compensate them.  This Monopoly was given in the 1990 Contract between ATN/GTT and the Government of Guyana.

The GCA had long been advocating that the 1990 Contract was void and as such there was no monopoly in the strict sense, as such there is no obligation on Government to compensate ATN/GTT for loss of monopoly.  The reason why the 1990 Contract was void was that the Government gave ATN/GTT the monopoly subject to their performing certain things.  The most important of these was their obligation to institute universal landline services in Georgetown and throughout the coastland of Guyana and in five named interior locations.  GTT has failed to do this and there is a list of thousands who require landlines and cannot get them, in addition to the demand for landlines in the new housing schemes.  In GCA’s view, this fundamental breach of the 1990 Contract in addition to other less fundamental breaches voids the so-called Monopoly Contract.

(2) The GCA believes that ATN/GTT owes the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) at least US $40, million in taxes which they have resisted paying over the years.  The GCA surmises that they will try to negotiate away from this debt by suggesting that it should be balanced against the loss of monopoly, among other things and that both sides should let bygones be bygones.  The GCA holds strongly to the view that ATN/GTT should be made to honour their financial obligations to the Government. They have extracted enormous profits from Guyana beyond the wildest dreams of any local company.

(3) GTT has been complaining that they have been making poor profits on the regulated services which are of course the monopoly segment of their business.  If the so-called monopoly service is of such poor value, then it could scarcely expect to be compensated for this.

We do look forward to the quick conclusion of negotiations and the advent of liberalisation.