Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
JAMAICANS have been piling up losses of over $1 billion annually on the Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd. through illegal power connections and diversions.
A huge portion of the debt has been concentrated in more than 40 inner-city communities in Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine, according to the JPSCo. The communities, located in sections described as "Red Areas", owe a minimum of $250 million piled up over the past three years, 1998 to 2000.
In addition, another $250 million is being racked up by some of the country's most affluent neighbourhoods, acco-rding to the JPSCo.
The vast majority of the communities accused of owing the power company are in political strongholds of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the ruling People's National Party (PNP). In addition, many unstructured (squatter) communities have sprung up over the last four years, joining others in stealing electricity and piling up a massive debt.
Windsor Heights
JPSCo officials claim that six communities in Kingston and St. Catherine have owed a combined $138 million annually since 1998. Windsor Heights, which is a squatter community off the Spanish Town Highway, heads the list of debtors with an annual debt of $34 million.
Steve Dixon, general manager of loss reduction at the JPSCo, told The Sunday Gleaner two weeks ago that the sum lost annually in garrison and inner-city communities since 1998 is a minimum of $250 million. But it could have been more.
"Our community relations programme has netted millions from communities that we were previously not collecting much from. Had it (failure to collect) continued like that, (money outstanding) could have been much more," Mr. Dixon said.
Flat rate
According to him, the company introduced a flat rate programme in four areas, and that has been significant in reducing the debt. The objectives of the programme, he said, is to get non-paying users to pay. The Kingston communities benefiting from the $600 per month flat rate are Tivoli Gardens, Seaview Gardens, Torrington Park and Central Court Apartments in Central Kingston. The programme has met with some success. Some $8 million, for example, was collected from Seaview Gardens from previously non-paying residents since 1998.
He said at least one other community, Payne Lands, in lower St. Andrew, is slated to benefit from the flat rate provision soon.
Maurice Reid, JPSCo's community relations manager, said although the debt has climbed in several communities, in others it has been reduced by as much as 50 per cent.
"In a community such as Tivoli Gardens, where for years only four out of 1,230 households were paying, we now have 720 households paying," Mr. Reid told The Sunday Gleaner.
According to him, the intervention of Members of Parliament Dr. Omar Davies in the South St. Andrew constituency, O.T. Williams in Western St. Andrew and Ronald Thwaites in Central Kingston, along with Opposition Leader Edward Seaga, in Western Kingston, had assisted JPSCo representatives in the areas.
