The Guyana Power and Light Co. (GPL) recently acquired US$5 million in transformers and securing them will be at the top of the agenda following last year’s embarrassing theft.
This is according to GPL Manag-ing Director Bharrat Dindyal, who said that some of the transformers have already arrived. “We recognise, based on our past experience, that there are persons out there who have great interest in them for all the wrong reasons. We will be taking extraordinary measures to protect them,” he stressed during a telephone interview with Stabroek News.
Meanwhile, speaking on the court case involving three men, including the owner of the Regent Multiplex Mall, who were charged with stealing a transformer, Dindyal said unfortunately in such matters GPL cannot do anything to put pressure on the judiciary. “We would like the matter to be disposed of quickly but there are so many matters. There is not much we can do. It is out of our hands,” he added.
Eighteen months after Davin Jones, Ganesh Ramlall and Rajesh Sanchara were charged with stealing a GPL transformer little has happened in the case. It has been repeatedly stalled for a number of reasons. There were reports that Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin, who now sits at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court, was still handling the matter. However, checks at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court indicated that the matter had to be re-assigned after Magistrate Williams-Hatmin was transferred to Vreed-en-Hoop from Georgetown. The matter was referred to the acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson, who then transferred it to another court. On Tuesday this newspaper was informed that the case was adjourned to September 6 in Court Five of the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
On January 28 last year, the trio was charged with stealing the transformer. It is alleged that between October 27 and November 17, 2008, the trio conspired with other persons to commit a felony, that is, they allegedly stole a KVA transformer belonging to GPL valued at $4,140,000.
The transformer was stolen from the GPL Sophia location some time during the last two months of 2008. An audit was done in October that year and at that time all the transformers the company had in stock were intact.
It was only when a city businessman took three transformers to be tested by the company that it was discovered that the transformers had been stolen.
Following that discovery the company checked its stock and found that two heavy-duty generators had also been stolen and information received led to one transformer being found installed at the then newly-built Regent Multiplex Mall, at the corner of Wellington and Regent streets. A second transformer was found abandoned on Cane View Avenue, South Ruimveldt.
