“Cammie” Ramsaroop appointed opposition rep on GPL Board

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

Former Chairman of the People’s National Congress Bishwaiswar “Cammie” Ramsaroop has been appointed as the opposition’s representative on the Board of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL).

This was announced by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds at Friday’s joint meeting of the parliament’s Economic Services and Natural Resources Committees.

Hinds said the appointment was to address opposition concerns that the Board was heavily politicised in favour of the government.

However, it appears that the appointment did not go down smoothly with the AFC. The party’s General Secretary David Patterson took to social media site Facebook to vent his feelings on the matter on Friday.

“I was just informed that Cammie Ramsaroop has been appointed the opposition member of a revamped GPL board! Of course, those two lovely parties have not even asked the AFC for a recommendation,” he commented on the status of a journalist reporting the proceedings of the meeting.

At a subsequent news conference AFC Leader Khemraj Ramajattan said it was good news that an opposition member was now on the Board.

“I would also have preferred that if they gonna have an APNU member there they ought to have asked the Alliance For Change for Board representation.” He added that they had presented a list of names to sit on state Boards at the request of the government but there was no feedback.

“Mr.Cammie Ramsaroop is a longtime politician, I hope that he would be up to the task of scrutinising GPL from inside. That is as much as I can say thus far,” Ramjattan said. 

The committee meeting received presentations from Hinds, the GPL Board, the Guyana Energy Agency and the Hinterland Electrification Unit.

The committees were tasked with examining issues from a feasibility and viability standpoint, while scrutinising the management of, and use of, the country’s natural resources.