Latest update May 13th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 25, 2013 News
– Wants guarantee of “real” progress if subsidy is restored
The country’s main opposition party APNU is scheduled to meet with the management of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL).
The meeting is being facilitated by the government, APNU executive Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine announced yesterday.
He said that the request to meet with GPL management was made at a recent meeting with the government. He said that while discussions are taking place at the political level, it would make more sense if APNU were to meet with the managers at GPL.
GPL has said that it would need $5 billion in subsidy cut by the opposition in this year’s budget in order to avoid asking for approval to increase electricity charges.
President Donald Ramotar has asked the company to put that proposal for increase tariffs on hold as his government tries to convince the opposition to restore the subsidy.
“We want to deal directly with the technicians and so on, who are responsible for the implementation of whatever project plans are on the table,” Dr. Roopnaraine said yesterday.
He said that while the government has been providing the necessary information, there was little point to the government providing “mountains of documentation” since “unlike the government, we don’t have armies of experts and consultants.”
According to Dr. Roopnaraine, many of the documents require a level of technical and expert scrutiny that is not immediately available to the opposition.
He said that the Office of the Leader of the Opposition is run “on a next to nothing budget” so they don’t have the ability to engage the level of technical expertise that is at the disposal of the government.
“So it takes us more time to go through and call in people to contribute,” he stated.
He said that the meeting with GPL is important if the opposition were to “come to a logical and rational conclusion.”
Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine said that APNU wants to know why GPL has not made satisfactory progress in reducing commercial and technical losses.
“…And what guarantee there is if the new tranche is released to them we’ll see some real progress like reduction of losses,” he stated.
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