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GPL DISCONNECTION CREWS SHOW LITTLE MERCY
Dec 16, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) pays private contractors to undertake disconnections. These private contractors have an incentive when they turn up at your home to disconnect your power; that incentive is a financial incentive in the form of payments for disconnecting your power.
The disconnection crews are not interested in explanations as to why you did not pay your bill. Once you cannot show proof that you have paid your bill, you will be disconnected.
There have been the rare cases, far and apart, whereby some disconnection crews have allowed persons in default to go immediately and pay their bills. But this level of toleration is very rarely exercised.
GPL has placed too much power in the hands of these contractors. Private contractors should not be allowed, unless the law explicitly states so, to come to anyone’s home and demand to question you about the payment of your electricity bill. If these are private contractors they should not have GPL identification cards.
There are far too many risks involved in having private contractors go to private citizens’ homes. The citizen needs to be sure that if someone is coming to their homes to disconnect power, that person is connected directly to GPL and that person’s conduct is accountable to some senior official at GPL. There have been cases in the past, even though admittedly these were few and far apart, where persons posing as GPL staff, have robbed homeowners.
Persons coming to disconnect electricity should come in a vehicle with the GPL logo. They should not appear in a small minibus with a ladder on top and a plywood sign marked “GPL”. That is not good enough, given the crime situation in Guyana.
The entire approach by GPL to power disconnection is poor public relations. GPL was amongst the first companies in Guyana, and this includes private companies that allow you to check your accounts online. For all the talk about how badly GPL was managed under Bharrat Dindyal, GPL was a leader in the electronic access to your bill information. The system is still working.
But if GPL could have gone to so much trouble to ensure that you could access your accounting information online, then why does it not treat its customers and clients with due regard and collect contact telephone numbers?.
Whenever a customer’s account is in default, GPL can call that customer and advise that person that they need to pay their account. It can email or text a message to that person. It should not be disconnecting persons without first contacting them directly and not giving them a chance to put themselves in order. Immediate disconnection without warning is poor public relations on the part of GPL. It needs to treat its customers better, and it will see that when it does this, not only will corruption be reduced, but more people will pay up, because they will view GPL as their friendly utility. Improving GPL’s public relations is just a phone call away.
The majority of Guyanese voted for change on May 11, 2015. There have been changes at GPL. There will probably be more. However, the one area in which change has been absent is in GPL’s relations with its customers.
GPL has handed to contractors the power to disconnect. It has given these contractors an incentive to disconnect rather than encourage customers to go in and settle their accounts. In this day and age, that approach is wrong and outdated.
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