BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Government’s light bulb project which is geared towards having citizens and residents of St. Kitts and Nevis reduce their dependency on incandescent lighting, is still ongoing, according to Minister of Energy Ian Patches Liburd.
Speaking with SKNVibes, Minister Liburd explained that the Government’s Department of Energy is currently in possession of over 300,000 LED bulbs for distribution.
The Minister declared that upon taking office, the Government of National Unity had put a hold on the programme in order to carry out the necessary checks and balances for transparency reasons.
He however informed that the project would soon recommence.
“What we did in order to ensure accountability, we did a reconciliation or stocktaking. And instead of distributing them each Friday, we distribute them throughout the week...Monday to Friday. We have in our possession over some 330,000 bulbs for both St. Kitts and Nevis.”
The project had come in for heavy criticism and riddled after it was revealed that a popular company was awarded the contract for procuring the bulbs.
While in opposition, the Government had heavily criticized the Labour Administration on the project, claiming that the party had given the contract only to Speedtech to procure the bulbs; an entity which they alleged was owned by a party member.
“One company, that company is Speedtech, is the one who supplied the bulbs through SIDF. Obviously they made some monies on it but we still have bulbs in stock, and as we speak we are distributing,” Minister Liburd told SKNVibes.
According to Liburd, some $6.5M was spent to procure all the bulbs that were distributed and those currently in Government’s possession
Interested persons are reminded that the bulbs will be distributed at the Department in the Needsmust area.
“You can come there and exchange your bulbs...your incandescent bulbs for the energy bulbs, and the process will continue. There are some cases where we use our judgement and we give to some people who don’t have bulbs, but the programme continues.”
According to the St. Kitts-Nevis Information Service, during the launch in Stapleton Village in October 2014, then Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas said that the project was being carried out to meet the Federation’s goal of using “less oil-based energy”.
“But because it is also our goal to have in our Federation appliances and other products which use dramatically less energy, we are doing this because we are committed to ensuring that ours is a Federation in which affordable, renewable, clean and reliable energy can be counted on,” he reported said.
It is said that this project would reduce dependency on imported fuel since St. Kitts and Nevis is known to have a high fuel bill that the Government has to honour.
