Writer’s note: In October 1992, following the return of the PPP to power after 28 years of PNC government, I had a meeting with then Minister of Information, Hon. Moses Nagamootoo – wow, how things have changed – to discuss a number of issues. Minister Nagamootoo asked me to start writing articles for publication in the Chronicle. I asked him if I could write on any topic and he answered affirmatively, saying that the PPP/C was building a democracy and wanted to encourage public discussion and commentary. Again, I sought clarification on whether my offerings would be censored and he immediately called the Chronicle’s editor at the time, the late Sharief Khan, and in my presence, told him to start accepting my articles.
The first article I wrote was in December 1992 and was entitled “Power generation must be a priority”. I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined that more than three decades later, Guyanese would still be grappling with electricity woes and constant blackouts. Indeed had someone told me that back then, I would have asked them if they were crazy!?
The Editor of Kiskadee Watch has kindly consented to reprint the article. Notable is the range of proposals that were available at the time from foreign investors to get us out of the dire situation; however the PPP/C back then, under the leadership of Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Mrs Jagan, was firmly tethered to its communist ideological moorings – wow, how things have changed – which did not favour the role of foreign direct investment(FDI), private capital and wealth, and did not embrace the concept of privitisation of economic activities, especially a public utility like electricity. What eventually was decided on after a few years was to have a management contract with some foreign partners – a plaster over the wound while it continued to fester. The article follows:
It is heartening to see Finance Minister Asgar Ally settling down to business and drafting forward-looking strategies for maintaining the momentum of economic growth and development. It is disheartening however, that while having acknowledged that the US$1.9B debt burden is comparable to Mount Roraima, the document for the Atlanta Conference sets out 128 projects which will incur another US$0.6B of debt: Mount Roraima, and then some. Hopefully, the ‘novel solution’ to the debt overhang between now and 1996 includes retirement of some of this debt, postponement of some of the payments, debt buy-back and swaps, and a freeze on the computation of interest.
So far, it is to the Atlanta document that one has to look, for written guidance on economic policy. The 1993 budget, billed for early in the year, any new policy paper to be worked out with the IMF, and the blueprint of privitisation being drafted with World Bank help, are still down the road.
Yet as reported in the Stabroek News of Sunday, November 29, the priorities of the Atlanta document are also disheartening. While the preoccupation with debt relief is understandable – and a “novel”, “creative” solution to go with it – other main concerns listed are ‘strengthening public and private sector management, bolstering health, education and community services, rehabilitating physical infrastructure and diversifying the economy’.
One would have thought that right up there in bright, bold print, there would have been mentioned the implementation and maintenance of a regular, reliable electricity supply, with excess capacity for future development needs. We must take it that buried somewhere in the second to last rubric of ‘rehabilitating physical infrastructure’ is the problem of power generation.
Albeit the title within President Jagan’s Cabinet of “new boy on the block” is probably most suited to Minister Ally – Western-style business suits and all – his technical expertise, I am told, is solid.
He should therefore be aware that ‘strengthening public and private sector management’ is difficult without a reliable power supply. Government ministries and corporations, whether the latter are privatized or not, need electricity for typewriter, computer, facsimile, telephone and ventilation facilities. The same is true for the banks and insurance companies, which cannot deliver efficient services to the community with the built-in overheads of a stand-by generator, along with maintenance costs. Factories cannot manufacture, and businesses cannot produce, without electricity.
In relation to ‘bolstering health, education, and community services’ the Minister of Finance must be aware that doctors cannot operate without electricity, our educational institutions are at a disadvantage, and our students cannot study at night without electricity, and culture and sports facilities within the community, like the National Cultural Centre, the National Park, GFC, the Sports Hall, the Gymnasium (at last!) are all useless monuments, without reliable electricity generation. If the economy is to diversify and new investment is to be attracted, a reliable generation system becomes a sine qua non for economic development.
Indeed the electricity sector itself has been the target in the past for foreign economic support. An offer had emanated from Italy some years ago during the PNC administration, to set up an electricity plant at a cost of about US$30M, on condition that the government found some US$2-odd million. That sector we were subsequently told, was on the “back burner”; soon thereafter a sum of US$2.8 million was found to pay for some second-hand generators mounted on a barge: we all know the rest of that story.
Besides the Italians, the American firm Leucadia had also thrown its hat into the ring, with an offer to buy into the GEC operation. One would have thought that Government would have welcomed the opportunity to do business with a firm that was interested in taking on such a burden as GEC, even if it meant granting Leucadia access to hydro-power potential in the future. Hydro-power could have been developed by Leucadia and other foreign interests e.g. the Japanese, and the Public Utilities Commission could have ensured that electricity costs did not shoot through the roof, as was attempted by GT&T. So far, neither the Italians, nor Leucadia nor the Japanese have been afforded a major piece of the action in this vital sector, even though they have all demonstrated varying degrees of interest: instead we have two Canadian-based companies fighting each other to supply electricity on a basis that is apparently not long-term, while the blackouts come and go.
Then there is the Guri Dam project with Venezuela, which, as imaginative as it is, has its own set of considerations, because it involves transmitting power from such a distance, from a neighboring territory, from a source which in the future may well be only able to meet demand from Venezuelan consumers. But a similar solution, if Guyana is to become involved in power generation with a neighbouring country, is available with Suriname; indeed hydropower from a Suriname source may well present a different set of options in terms of cost-sharing, transmission lines and excess capacity.
The Government had intended to make overtures in Atlanta for US$43M for a diesel plant, US$29.4M for electricity distribution and US$24.6M for a combustion turbine plant. Hopefully, the awareness exists that there are other sources of finance besides those which may have been available in Atlanta, other parties who may be interested but may not have been there, and other options, like exploring hydro-power with various business interests.
We should take note of Leucadia’s return to the negotiating table and hope that vision and foresight would produce a creative approach to the rationalisation of our immediate and future power generation needs, to the mutual benefit of Guyana as a whole, and investors as well. Let the electricity supply rehabilitation project be the main priority after debt relief, if we are intent on bolstering the productive capacity of this nation of ours.
Thereafter, a number of relatively low-cost, but high-relief projects could be undertaken, while we assemble financial assistance packages for major works like sea defence, improvement of the education system and rehabilitation of the drainage and irrigation system and the agriculture sector. For example, the runway at Timehri Airport could be upgraded to truly international standards, to accommodate those wide-bodied aircraft which airlines already use on the routes from North America and Europe to the Caribbean. Timehri airport needs much more than bathroom tiles plastered on its façade, and ill-placed, oversized directional signs all over.
And then repair and illuminate the road from Timehri to Georgetown. Then the Harbour Bridge and the ferries. Then…
End note: On re-reading the article today, what I find truly amazing is that back then, 34 years ago, I had identified a number of projects that should have been addressed in addition to power generation, and yet these have either only in recent years been addressed, or not yet completed, including during the five years of APNU government: rehabilitating the drainage and irrigation system (the country continues to suffer from flooding and overtopping); the upgrading of the runway at Timehri, now CJIA, has only been done within the past five to ten years, with the modernisation of the terminal building still playing catch-up; repairing and illuminating the road from the airport is only now being done, in the process causing major traffic disruptions and delays; the Harbour Bridge was only replaced last year; as for the ferries, sadly the MV Barima tragedy stands as ignominious testimony to the parlous state of the water transport sector over the decades.
It could be argued that as regards increased consumer demand, GPL might finally have a “break even” handle on the power generation side of the equation, at considerable recurring cost to the taxpayers, and that the current problems are more associated with the transmission and distribution side of things; yet, to have addressed the one without the other in a timely, coordinated manner, is not an efficient use of resources.
As a perfect example of dysfunctional, jumbled-up thinking, while the citizenry continues after three-plus decades to endure frequent, prolonged blackouts – now euphemistically christened “system disturbances” – GPL just announced a spanking new control centre which will expeditiously restore power to customers during major outages. But hold on a second…seriously!? Ought not the mission statement of GPL be to provide a reliable and stable electricity supply at reasonable cost? Instead, the company incredulously admits that its monopoly service will continue to have major outages, but customers can take heart that going forward, those outages will be dealt with in record time! Does GPL seriously believe they deserve a cheer or a pat on the back for this “improvement”, when in fact they have gone hopelessly off-message!?
All of which leads to another more fundamental question: where in the bowels of the Administration is the serious planning, forecasting and projections being done – in the absence now, in several iterations of PPP/C government, of a Ministry of Planning – to chart our development trajectory? Respectfully, a Ministry of Government Efficiency – whatever its mandate – cannot cut it. What is required is a continuous body of work by a multifaceted team of skilled professionals that entails big-picture, outside of the box thinking. No need to reinvent the wheel: they could learn from best practices from efficient countries like Norway, Botswana, Malaysia or Barbados (or even the real Dubai!), and interrogate various options and scenarios with the help of AI, in order to propose solutions to the decision makers, for the good of the nation and the improvement of the lives and livelihoods of all the people of this Dear Land of Guyana.
Discussion