New JGRA takes on challenges
Published:Friday | November 21, 2014 | 1:08 PMChad Bryan
Newly elected president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA), Leonard Green, says so far his presidency has been challenging as he seeks to address concerns affecting the association.
“The job is a little challenging based on the number of issues that we have and the magnitude of the issues. The issues that we face can impact on the dealers in a big way. It could wipe out the livelihood of nearly 300 gas station operators,” Green said.
He makes it clear that he is not taking an individual approach. “It is not an easy task. It is going to take the collective resources of the stakeholders to fix the problems that we have now,” said Green, who was elected president of the JGRA at its 63rd annual general meeting, held at the Riu hotel, Ocho Rios, St Ann, on September 13.
Green identified issues affecting the JGRA include the contract terms being imposed by marketing companies, high bank charges, an outdated trade-specific legislative framework, an increase in illicit fuel sales, and safety and security issues.
“We have started to do some work. It means we have to adjust our secretariat. We have actually gone ahead and established new committees to deal with policy changes. We’re also looking at our constitution. We have forged new relationships, especially with the University of the West Indies, which is going to assist us with building capacity of the organisation. We are taking some steps to fix some of these problems,” Green said.
The main focus of the JGRA over the next year will be to lobby the Government to use its powers to ensure equity and integrity in the petroleum distribution trade. According to Green, the JGRA believes that the petroleum sector is too critical to national development to be left to the dominant players to self-regulate.
Speaking to Automotives on the use of additives used by some petroleum distributors, Green said they do what they claim to. “Yes, with some of the products. Some of them actually do deliver what they say can deliver,” he stated.