Dear Editor,
Over three weeks the residents of Bartica have been experiencing erratic electrical power supply from GPL. Before the situation got better, it got worse; the entire village was out of power for over eighteen hours.
The business community was hit the hardest with millions lost as a result of the spoilage of meat, fish and chicken; in addition many appliances were burnt.
After ten days of no official word from GPL’s local executives, people took to the street to protest and vent their frustration to get an official response from GPL. The general feeling was that GPL did not have any contingency plan or a development plan to deal with the growing demand for electrical power due to the fact that Bartica township has been expanding.
The residents were clamouring to have the three old generators replaced with new ones which would satisfy the needs of the community; in addition they were demanding better customer service from GPL.
Editor, I am not an expert in electrical power generation, but what I do know is that owing to the expansion of Bartica township over the last ten years – for instance, the Four Mile Housing Scheme, the West Indian Housing Scheme and West of Bartica Secondary are just a few of the new developed areas. The demand for electricity has increased, and to cope with this demand larger generators are needed.
GPL is the sole electricity company, so one would have thought that a strategic contingency plan would have been in place to deal with any disruption of services; such a plan is the norm for all businesses that have customer service at the top of their minds.
I have read many letters in your newspaper where the writers were peeved about GPL’s uncaring attitude towards their complaints pertaining to their home appliances being burnt and light bills increasing for no apparent logical reason. My thought then was that the bad customer service displayed by GPL was owing to the fact that staff had not been exposed to its rudiments, and that this would be corrected over time after exposure to training.
Editor, I was shocked and angered at the manner in which GPL CEO Mr Bharrat Dindyal dealt with the concerns of Barticians when addressing them on July 25. It became clearer to me why GPL has an uncaring attitude to customers’ complaints.
Mr Dindyal stated that it was the Chinese taxpayers who were responsible for the viability of the Bartica power station, and the funds generated by Bartica cannot even cover the cost of fuel. He did not show any empathy and his PR skills were the worst I ever witnessed.
My contention is, If GPL Bartica is running at a loss, why not privatize the business?
The entire village had been without power for over twenty-four hours prior to Mr Dindyal’s arrival; was he not cognizant of the suffering of the people? Where was the assurance that GPL was working towards an immediate solution? My interpretation of his attitude was that the Chinese were the ones who are giving GPL money, thus the people have to take what they get.
After witnessing the CEO’s contempt for Barticians, it begs the question whether the same bad service received is GPL standard practice.
It is said that the tone set by the leader does help improve customer service. One of leadership Ten Commandments states: ‘When we treat our people well, they will treat our customers well. Conversely, when we are cold, distant and detached from our team, that attitude and approach will come across loud and clear to our customers.’
It is no coincidence that the best service providers often are organizations in which tone-setting by the leaders is practised regularly and often.
Mr Dindyal in my opinion owes Barticians an apology, and he should focus on providing excellent service to his staff and also the customers, since they are responsible for his super salary.
Or perhaps the Chinese are responsible for his remuneration?
Yours faithfully,
Ignatius Prowell
