John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
Jamaica Public Service crew working on a light pole on Manhattan Road in Kingston yesterday. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
ALREADY FACED with an increase in electricity bills, the public will again be asked to pay more as a result of a $1.5 billion insurance claim served by the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) on government.
The claim, made to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), is for damage done to the power company's distribution network by Hurricane Ivan last September.
But Clive Mullings, the Opposition spokesman on mining, energy and telecommunication, yesterday said the JPS claim should not be honoured by the OUR on the basis that "the failure of the company to insure their transmission lines is a business decision for which they alone should be accountable."
Mr. Mullings also contend that the rate increase "would continue beyond the amount said to have been lost due to damage and unjustly enrich the JPS at the expense of an already overburdened public".
ANALYSIS BY THIS WEEK
J. Paul Morgan, director-general of the OUR, said his team and a number of overseas experts have been doing the due diligence to analyse the JPS' claim. He said the analysis should be completed this week. He said that a determination on how much should be paid to the light and power company will be made after the analysis.
The OUR director-general explained that the insurance claim had come out of an agreement in 2004 to establish a US$100 million-per-year Insurance Fund to assist with offsetting the cost of damage caused by natural disasters to the utility company's infrastructure. "But that was in June and the hurricane happened in September (so there) is no (money in the) Fund," explained Mr. Morgan. He added that the JPS, under its licence, is entitled to make the insurance claim.
Mr. Morgan said they have not yet worked out exactly how this new cost will be applied to electricity bills. However, he said "my personal preference would be to see it appear on the bill as a separate line item so that it is not hidden".
