Board of Directors appointed for Wärtsilä replacement

Cabinet has approved the appointment of the Board of Directors of the Power Producers & Distributors Incorporated which now provides operation and maintenance services to the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL Inc.).

This was related by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon today (Thursday, March 23, 2017).

Finnish-owned Wärtsilä has been serving the power company since 1994 and its contract ended in December 2016.

The Power Producers & Distributors Incorporated is a state-owned company which was formed in December and came into operation in January.

Over the years, GPL would have allocated millions of dollars for services offered by Wärtsilä.

The Minister said with this new arrangement, the Government will be saving. “The Guyana Power and Light will be saving because the sums of money which were paid to Wartsila will definitely see an improvement in the remuneration for the persons who are now in this new company and still be able to provide a saving for the GPL so it’s sort of a win-win situation for us in Guyana,” he noted.

Harmon assured that the new company would be able to perform the same duties since the Guyanese employees of Wartsila were the ones doing the daily operation and maintenance services. He added that “We need to invest in our own…they are competent and we need to give them that assurance.”

The Board will be chaired by Mark Bender while the Vice Chairman is Aaron Fraser. Secretary to the Board is Ronald Bursch-Smith. Other members include Harriram Parmesar, Stephen Fraser, Amanza Nazir, a member of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the Permanent Secretary of the Public Infrastructure.

Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson in December 2016, said the new company is headquartered in the same building that housed Wartsila in Kingston. He said better services are expected.