Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has demanded answers from the Ministry of Public Works and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) following a power outage in South Ruimveldt, Georgetown. The incident was caused by multiple utility poles collapsing, leaving residents without electricity for 24 hours.
Speaking at a press conference today, he described the incident as unacceptable and called for decisive action against those responsible. “Last week, something happened that caused me great grief and made me infuriated,” Jagdeo said.
The government has been working to expand and enhance infrastructure across Georgetown, with the Aubrey Barker Road undergoing upgrades as part of the development agenda. Jagdeo noted that the recent collapse of the poles has raised serious concerns about project execution.
“So then all of these electricity poles collapsed and left South Ruimveldt and surrounding areas in darkness. Now, this could happen…accidents do happen. But I started digging into this a bit more, and this is not an ordinary accident that discomforted this community in such a major way,” he stated.
The Vice President disclosed that his findings indicate the poles were not installed according to proper specifications after being relocated for the road expansion. He then called for a thorough investigation and demanded credible explanations from the agencies involved.
“Public works need to say who designed this, who was responsible for it, what was the contractor paid for, whether it’s a design fault or the contractor did not comply with the design…” he asked.
The Vice President underscored the need for consequences to ensure accountability, suggesting that contractors and supervisors who fail to meet standards should face severe penalties.
“Imagine if that didn’t happen there, we would have never known that these poles were not placed according to specs because someone, either the contractor, didn’t do their work properly. And if the contractor didn’t do their work properly, they had to do it with the complicity of the person who is supervising the work. And there should be consequences. People have to be blacklisted and fired for these sorts of things, or it’s not going to change,” he said.
