In a bid to lift its profile and encourage more subscribers to utilise its services, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hosted its first Open Day on Friday, at its headquarters in Queenstown.
The PUC is empowered to initiate and conduct investigations into the operations and standards of service of any public utilities which fall within its purview. These are the Guyana Power and Light Inc., Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Co Ltd, and Digicel.
Speaking to Stabroek News during Friday’s event, Secretary of the Commission, Vidiahar Persaud, said, “The Open Day is intended to lift the Commission’s profile. A lot of persons are not aware of the PUC and what it does actually as a regulator. Ironically, a lot of persons have vital services because of the public utilities and that is why you have the PUC.”
Persaud explained that since they are mandated by the law to balance investor as well as consumer interests, the Open Day is geared toward the consumers and ensuring that they are equipped with the requisite knowledge of the PUC and how they can use the services they offer when they find themselves at an impasse with respect to any of the public utilities that the Commission regulates.
“So, this aspect is just for the consumer to know where the PUC is and that is why it is being hosted…here [Queenstown]… For consumers who may have queries and issues with any of the public utilities under our mandate. Certainly we would be able to check in and see how fast as possible we can address the issues,” Persaud explained.
Even though the Commission recorded an increase in complaints last year as
compared to 2016, Persaud highlighted that there is a need for the Open Day and other similar activities since their aim is to be able to reach as many customers as possible. Furthermore, he noted that considering the number of subscribers using public utilities in the country, the complaints currently received represent a small fraction of the population.
“What we have found—because when we do our complaints process one of the things we do is we ask consumers how they would’ve found out about the Commission—is that a lot of first timers, they would’ve heard from a neighbour or some sign in the newspaper and that may have prompted them to check in with us. But despite the fact that yes, you would have a large number of consumer complaints, you do have quite a number of subscribers and the PUC, yes we’re stationed in Georgetown and we have an office in Berbice but we still feel the need to have that lift because certainly you want to ensure that more persons who are affected come out,” Persaud explained.
On Friday, consumers were able to attend the Open Day with any queries or issues they have with any of the public utility suppliers.
Upon highlighting their issue, the PUC would’ve checked to ensure that a
complaint was made in the past, and if that was found, then a formal complaint was filed on behalf of the customer. The company under scrutiny then, would be given ample time to respond to the query and customer complaint.
“We check through what their issue is and record it as a complaint and give a time frame to the utility because we can’t address everything like a bull in a china shop. We have to give the utility [company] the time to respond,” he added.
Persaud also explained that they had had various outreach campaigns across different villages around the country to ascertain whether certain areas have isolated issues. They have also had awareness campaigns at schools. Persaud related that their plan is to continue on the same trajectory.
While he was unable to give a figure of how many persons would’ve attended the Open Day up until midday Friday, Persaud noted that persons came earlier in the morning and had been slowly filtering in.
