New Thriving Restaurant owed GPL over $90m at end of 2015 –audit

-years-long case stemmed from power theft

As of December 31, 2015, the New Thriving Restaurant owed the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) $90m in a years-long case that stemmed from electricity theft.

This is according to an audit of GPL by Nigel Hinds Financial Services which was submitted to the government on August 29, 2016.

The audit said that New Thriving, which recently opened up a new restaurant at Providence on the East Bank, is presently before the court for non-payment of electricity. The audit said that New Thriving Restaurant filed a complaint on March 17, 2010 with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The PUC, on December 29, 2011, concluded its deliberations on the complaint filed and issued PUC Order No. 5/2011 pronouncing the restaurant to be indebted to GPL in the sum $49,558,479.

Subsequent to this order, GPL wrote New Thriving on January 5, 2012 to repay the sum of $49,558,479 and demanded an initial payment of $12,389,620 no later than January 9, 2012 with the balance of $37,168,895 to be paid no later than January 31, 2012.

New Thriving subsequently took this matter before the court on January 10, 2012 by appealing against the aforesaid PUC decision.

According to Hinds’ audit, by taking the matter before the court, the restaurant was granted the following privileges:

1. To continue receiving electricity from GPL

2. To not have to pay any of the twenty-four months retroactive theft of electricity charges billed by GPL

3. To only have to pay 80% of bills issued

Since the conclusion of the PUC’s Order No. 5/2011 on December 29, 2011, New Thriving’s amount owing to GPL has increased to a sum in excess of $90M as of December 31, 2015.

Hinds noted that lower income persons are frequently placed before the courts for electricity theft.

“We also noted that from November 3, 2011 to March 19, 2015, 1,282 mostly lower income persons were arrested and placed before the courts for theft of electricity; most of these matters are either pending or struck off”, the audit report said.

The audit report pointed out that it is the policy of GPL to bill customers found to have been stealing electricity retroactively for twenty-four months. The backbilling starts from the date when GPL discovered the illicit use of electricity. Once theft of electricity has been determined, the audit said that GPL’s field investigators inspect the meters to determine the actual amount of electricity that was used, and averages the total for the retroactive period.

The Loss Reduction Department provides the information to Customer Service Operation Department for entry into the Customer Information System. After the Customer Service Operation Department reviews the account in question and makes alterations as necessary, the bill for theft of electricity is then finalised and charged to the customer.

Hinds’ audit report said that determining the precise rate of recovery for receivables from theft of electricity is difficult to ascertain because some customers, who are charged for theft subsequently take the matter to the court, where the court makes orders similar those that were made for New Thriving.

Further, there is no provision in the CIS database system that separates payments made by customers for amount owing for theft of electricity and that for owing current electricity consumption charges. As such, it is difficult to determine the rate of recovery from charges for theft of electricity.