PRIME Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, in a statement, responded to some contentions made by Member of Parliament David Patterson, which he maintains are untrue about the national electricity company, Guyana Power & Light Inc. (GPL).

Patterson accused the government of not having a Strategic Plan for GPL, claiming that one was drafted by the APNU+AFC while in government, and noted further that projects to improve the transmission and distribution network were completed without external loans.

PM Phillips corrected the assertions made by Patterson, noting that not only does GPL have a Strategic Plan, but the government has also approved the GPL Development and Expansion Plans for Years 2021-2025, and Years 2022-2026. All of these are available on the company’s website.

“It is noteworthy that APNU, while in Government, failed to approve and publish the statutory Development and Expansion Plans for Years 2017 – 2021, Years 2018 – 2022, Years 2019 – 2023, and Years 2020 – 2024.
“In fact, the APNU only approved and published a Development and Expansion Plan for Years 2016 – 2020,” he stated.

The Prime Minister, who has responsibility for electrification, also noted that the Development and Expansion Plan for the year 2015-2019 was published by the utility company and is available on their website. This, he said, was done by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government before leaving office in 2015.

PM Phillips further noted that the major projects quoted by Mr. Patterson, which included the upgrade of the transmission lines, were birthed by the PPP/C under the President Donald Ramotar government, with funding secured from the European Union (EU) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This was done in 2014 for the execution of the Power Utility Upgrade Programme (PUUP).
He said that the APNU took credit for the PUUP, which contained components such as strengthening GPL’s management capabilities, operational efficiency, and infrastructure investments for loss reduction, including conductor upgrading, transformer rightsizing, and replacement of aged transformers and meters.

Responding to claims that the projects were completed without financing from any external loans, the PM said that the significant reduction in world market fuel prices during the period of 2015 to 2016 allowed for the self-financing of these generation projects in a number of areas across Guyana.

“The financial records of GPL reveal a starkly different situation at the time of APNU demitting office in August 2020.
“GPL’s loans had increased by more than G$21 billion. This means that in the five short years that APNU was in office, GPL’s debt increased by 65%. Also, the loans related to the IDB-funded PUUP project were in fact from an external source contrary to the statement made by Mr Patterson,” he stated.

He additionally noted that when the PPP/C government returned to office in August 2020, money owed to GPL by the government had increased by more than $10 billion.
This was a result of the APNU+AFC administration not ensuring the timely and full payment of electricity bills for government offices, the PM said.