Dear Editor,
One Saturday recently I got a call from a resident of Zeelugt informing me that the day before a truck hooked a power cable whilst passing and caused a section of the area to be without power. Repeated calls were made by various residents affected by the outage to the emergency section of GPL, who were told that the technicians would come. Because many people had perishable stuff in their freezers and fridges, I made a call to the emergency number available, and after being told that my call was important and to please hold, I did so. A while later, a woman who said her name was Sharon answered; there was loud noise in the background which caused me to have to repeat over and over the reason for the call. I was told that once a report was made the technicians would come. With that I decided to go home and whilst passing a popular drinking place in Uitvlugt I saw a new pitbull minibus parked there with the emergency sign at the back. The crew were sitting on the bench outside drinking. When I went back to Zeelugt the next day (Sunday), I was informed that the same bus went and rectified the problem later that Saturday night, but before they did, those affected had to make a donation that the emergency crew requested.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to Ms Shevion Sears, Public Relations Officer for GPL, for any comment she might wish to make and received the following response.
“In response to Sahadeo Bates’ letter sent to GPL’s Public Relations Office on February 29, 2016 for comment, GPL wishes to state the following:-
Foremost, we would like to thank Mr Bates for his letter and for bringing to our attention an issue that affects the quality of service we aim to provide as the primary electricity provider.
It is important to note that our Company in its continuous effort to uphold policies, procedures and foster good customer relationships does not condone unprofessionalism as described and can assure Mr Bates that the allegations will be investigated.
“To aid the investigation process, we would be grateful if a vehicle licence plate number can be provided along with descriptions of the technicians to the Public Relations Unit at 91 Duke Street, Kingston or emailed to publicrelations@gplinc.com. Further, we have consistently advised the public that all payments for services rendered by the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) should be made at one of our Commercial Offices and not to any employee of the Company.
“We encourage every customer to play their role in bringing an end to such misconduct and caution that bribery is against the law; therefore, customers should not engage and/or encourage this practice.
“Again, thanks to Sahadeo Bates for his letter.”