Vaz calls on OUR to conduct audit of light and power company
MINISTER of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Daryl Vaz is still fuming over what he called Jamaica Public Service’s (JPS) tardiness in restoring electricity to some customers who have been without power since Hurricane Beryl struck the country on July 3.
At the same time, Vaz said he is not pleased with the length of time it took JPS to restore power to customers following last Friday’s squall line which downed several poles and power lines and deprived some customers of electricity for more than 20 hours.
“I really don’t feel that JPS is moving at the speed that a disaster deserves,” Vaz said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Sunday, as he continued to chastise the company for the slow pace at which power restoration is being done following Beryl.
He said that coming out of a meeting with JPS management and directors last Friday, he is still dissatisfied with JPS’s performance.
“What is very clear to me is that after [more than] three weeks JPS is still lagging behind. They have missed the targets that they set and it’s of major concern to me because they did not show me, going into the fourth week, that they had additional resources, especially manpower; they still are using the same that have missed the targets,” he said.
Even worse, Vaz said, according to information from his ministry, JPS is paying rates which are significantly below industry rates, “and that is concerning, because I can’t understand how in a disaster you would not pay and incentivise the workers to be able to carry out the work faster and get an incentive for that. That in itself leaves more questions than answers”.
He stressed that JPS cannot continue to operate in the manner in which it has without sanctions and is calling on the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to conduct a thorough audit of the light and power company.
“My call is on the OUR to do what they were mandated to do. They are the regulatory arm. And they need to do a fulsome audit of JPS and every condition under the licence and report to the country what the findings are. It is unacceptable that JPS can be carrying on the way they are carrying on and have no sanctions whatsoever,” he said.
Friday’s squall line seemed to add to Vaz’s fury, and he is expected to summon OUR to Cabinet today (Monday) “to discuss what happened to cause more than 10,000 customers to be out of power for some 20 hours after the wind”.
The OUR is also expected to provide information on JPS’s maintenance schedule.
Vaz argued that the same licence which JPS uses to send estimated bills to customers also requires that the company maintains the power lines and change light poles, but this is not being done, pointing out that “if you look across Jamaica, you will see the same poles that you’ve been seeing for decades”.