The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has reduced its debts to suppliers from $800 million to $260 million from September to December 2020.
Chief Executive Officer, Shaik Baksh, made this statement in an interview with the Department of Public Information on Tuesday. Mr. Baksh said these debts were incurred during the period 2017 to 2019.
“We owed a lot of money to suppliers and GWI was finding it very difficult to access credit to source important equipment and materials for its day-to-day operations…So, indeed, this is a big achievement. Many suppliers have been paid and we still have some outstanding current year debt which is 2020,” he said.
This means that the company is now in good standing with its creditors and is able to procure much-needed materials to conduct its work in a timely manner, the CEO said.
Baksh said when he took up his appointment in September, GWI was in debt. It also had a bank overdraft of an undisclosed sum at one of the commercial banks.
“When a company has an overdraft, it means that you are in a desperate financial position. Since September, although the overdraft facility is there, we have not used it to access any credit from the banking system,” he said.
Mr. Baksh credited these achievements to the company’s aggressive revenue collection drive during the latter part of 2020. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, he said that by the end of December, GWI had surpassed its 2019 revenue collection for the same period by 22 per cent.
“That will mean that by the end of December 2020 compared to December 2019, our revenue position improved by over $1 billion which is again a good achievement on the part of the employees of GWI and the customers; and importantly, government agencies paid their dues to GWI,” he said.
Although the entity’s financial position has improved over the last four months, there is still room for improvement.
Going forward, he said the utility will be focusing on financial prudence and meeting its obligations to its creditors in a timely manner.
