With Government set to rent a second Power ship to supply additional power to the national grid, the Alliance For Change, (AFC) believes the move adds up to a wastage of tax payers’ money since the hundreds of millions of dollars being used for a temporary fix could have been invested in a more permanent solution for the Guyana Power and Light company (GPL).

Earlier this year, the Government through GPL signed a multi-million-dollar contract with Urbacon Concessions Investments, W.L.L (UCI), a subsidiary of UCC Holdings in Qatar, in collaboration with Karpower ship International of Turkey to rent the power ship for two years. However, despite that intervention and the purchase of several used generating sets, which also attracted millions of dollars, the power problems have continued and frequent power outages occur almost daily.

On Thursday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo announced the rental of a second power ship which is expected to bring some 60 megawatts (MW) of additional power to the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).

But at a press conference on Friday, Opposition Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Alliance for Change, David Patterson said the costs associated with the rental of the power ships are exorbitant.

“Cumulatively the sum of the cost Guyana will be paying because they had zero plans for our power sector, just for the rental of these two ships Guyana will be $126M per day and $46B per year and of course with the two years contract it will be $94B or US$426M,” Patterson stated.

Mr. Patterson said while that cost only covers generation, there are also other rentals and administrative costs, and when those are added, the country will find itself paying as much as $136 Billion annually for the rental of the power ships.

“So, you can see by those numbers, assess how poorly GPL is being managed, and how much money just by these two ships they have cost us. By poor decision making they have invested very little other than the gas-to shore which is mounting and all these extra costs will have to be added to the cost of the gas-to-shore because the only reason we are renting is because the gas-to-shore which supposed to be finished and complete by the end of this year still is not complete and looks like there is another year,” Patterson stated.

According to Patterson, a part from the gas-to-energy project the Government has shown no real effort to add additional power to the national grid, despite more hotels and businesses being opened and the demand for power rising steadily.

“Every single thing that they have done is adhocracy and poor management and that is why we are here where we are, we leave office and left projections about what is needed and recommended that power be added to the grid a year in advance based on the needs but they did absolutely nothing,” the Opposition Member of Parliament said.

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