PAM says current government cannot deal with ‘current’ crisis

By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-WITH unscheduled electricity outages continuing to adversely affect St. Kitts and the government spending US $90,000 each month on generator rentals, the People’s Action Movement (PAM) leader Lindsay Grant has stated that the Labour Party is incapable of dealing with the electricity situation because of “stale” and “dimmed” ideas.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday (Nov. 25) Grant said that the current state of unreliable electricity in the Federation continues because the government is engaging in “stopgap measures” instead of fixing the root cause of the problem.

“The rental cost of the generators at US$90,000 per month is only a stopgap measure. The government is hoping that the country’s luck will change and the situation will improve.

“What the Federation needs now is a comprehensive power generation policy that not only takes care of the current crisis, but comprehensively deals with the capacity issues of the future,” he said.

Grant noted that not only do the outages inconvenience the general public, but they have cost businesses like the Bank of Nova Scotia, shops in Basseterre and Port Zante, and Kentucky Fried Chicken thousands of dollars in missed or lost revenue.~~Adz:Right~~

“Because of weeks of unreliable power, the Federation’s economy is being undermined and people are getting restless. Four years ago we were told that this problem was being solved once and for all, so we got $500 for our frustrations. We are more frustrated now, but no $500 is forthcoming. It was not solved then, and as we speak it still has not been solved,” he said.

PAM’s lone representative in Parliament and Deputy Leader, Hon. Shawn Richards, said that the issue came down to the credibility of the government.

“Just before the elections in 2004 the Prime Minister said there would be an inquiry into these generators. To date we haven’t seen that commission of inquiry and there is still the question as to the purchase of the generators. You have a question of the government and their credibility.”

Other credibility issues cited by the PAM leaders included the outages mere hours after promises of electrical stability were made by the Minister with responsibility for Utilities, Hon. Earl Asim Martin, as well as those over this past weekend following two employees being suspended from the Needsmust Power Station for allegedly tampering with safety controls and causing the outages.

“Our story has been the same from day one that the generators are prototypes, we need a reliable supply of electricity and the government ought to commission some sort of investigation into those generators,” Richards said.