According to Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo, the Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson should take responsibility for the frequent power outages currently being experienced.
“Every time you have blackout don’t blame GPL blame Patterson and this Cabinet,” he told reporters at his weekly press conference yesterday.
At the time Jagdeo was refuting claims that decision made in relation to the placement of submarine cables during his party’s tenure is responsible for the recent prevalence in blackouts.
He said that years ago he advised President David Granger that “decision may have lag effect.”
“If you are not putting in generating capacity and you have older units and you are at peak with no reserves you will have what we are having. Your install capacity and peak demand can’t be the same,” he stressed.
According to Jagdeo the real issue is that there has been no board so recurring issues have not been resolved.
“They didn’t have a board for a year and a half. The Minister is total inept… This Minister has interfered too much and so you can’t blame the operational people at GPL. It is just that these guys did not have enough investments in the right areas and they are struggling with the system. It is the Cabinet and this Minister,” he claimed.
He criticized Patterson for ending the Amaila hydro project and Wartsila management of generators.
Jagdeo posited that even if government were to decide tomorrow to buy a new generator it will come next year.
