-as power company implements ‘name & shame’ campaign

The Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) has embarked on an intense campaign entitled “Name and Shame,” geared towards reducing electricity theft.

A team from GPL, accompanied by the media, a representative from the Government Electrical Inspectorate (GEI) and the police yesterday morning at about 10:20 hours descended on the premises of Ice Factory owner Rajendra Mohan of Lot 129, Courbane Park, Annandale, East Coast Demerara, a businessman who had for some time been under surveillance for electricity theft.

Mohan showed media personnel that he had paid on his estimated electricity bills even as the GPL team arrived outside his residence and he began enquiring about their presence.

He told the media that he has been constantly harassed by GPL officials, who have been taking reports from persons.

Mohan explained that GPL officials visited him on Thursday with the news that they came for an inspection, and they turned off his electricity service, which he said he had paid for and has been paying his bills regularly. He owes GPL $3.6M, and is in a contract with the power company.

An employee of the utility company climbed onto the utility pole and removed the main connection wires that were displayed, thus revealing that the connection had been tampered with by means of a mechanism having been implemented to cheat the GPL of millions of dollars via electricity theft.

Confronted with the evidence in the presence of police, yesterday, the man claimed he was unaware of any tampering, and contended that he is being unnecessarily hassled by GPL as he displayed paid light bills.

Mohan said he has been operating his business for the past 15 years, and isn’t aware of any illegal connection. “What’s the problem? I don’t know! I have been paying my bills!” he said.

Operations Manager Sundar Dominic told reporters that the businessman’s service had been disconnected before and he was back-dated for his service, which prompted GPL to conduct a random check of the meter to see why it was not registering.

Dominic explained that there was a short circuit from the main to the residence, which houses a large business, because a mechanism had been placed to disrupt the connection.

Dominic added that a jumper which sends signals to the meter to record the consumption was disrupted. As such, Mohan was found to be stealing electricity by tampering with the service.

He pointed out that the businessman was being charged on an estimated basis for his consumption of electricity since last year, but the GPL had a random inspection done to see what was happening, since he has cheated the system of millions of dollars over a period of time.

Dominic said Mohan had been caught stealing electricity before, but the GPL was paying him this visit to determine why his meter was not registering the service.

Government Electrical Inspectorate representative Stephen Williams said that a bypass by way of a jumper was seen on the connection to divert signals away from the meter. Therefore, the customer was not paying for the full service received, since that was not fully recorded, he said.

GPL Loss Reduction Manager Loaknauth Singh said the GPL brought the GEI representative along to have a first-hand look at the happenings for verification process, since the GPL has a zero-tolerance policy on electricity theft, which is cheating the company of millions of dollars.

Caught red-handed, Mohan was taken into police custody and placed in the lockups at Vigilance Police Station, pending the outcome of the probe.

(By Michel Outridge)