JPS rejects KSAMC charge of failure to fix street lights

Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) senior executive Blaine Jarrett has contradicted claims by councillors in the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) that the company has failed to repair hundreds of broken street lights across the capital city.

In fact, Jarrett, the JPS’s senior vice president for energy delivery who attended a Gleaner Editors’ Forum with colleagues on Thursday, said a significant number of the light poles within the Corporate Area are owned by the government-run National Works Agency and Urban Development Corporation.

Jarrett said that the councillors’ claims form part of the challenge facing the power company, which is not responsible for repair work.

“Despite our efforts to indicate and share that with the public, they’re still looking at the company. Once the light is out, [they believe] it’s JPS’s responsibility,” he said.

Street lights from the Six Mile area through to Washington Boulevard and on to Dunrobin Avenue, as well as those on other major corridors such as Norman Manley Boulevard, Hope Road, and Molynes Road do not belong to the JPS, Jarrett pointed out as he cited examples of out-of-service lights.

He said that the JPS has been in dialogue with several government agencies and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to transfer the infrastructure to the company.

“We’re advanced [in discussions] with the Government to develop a programme of rehabilitation and programme of transitioning those over to JPS with certain conditions,” said Jarrett.

He said that the proposal is before Cabinet awaiting approval.

The JPS executive said across KSAMC divisions, JPS owns only two per cent of street lights that are not functional, adding that maintenance work is being hampered by the challenges with the global supply chain.

“We are always willing to work and have been working with councillors to expedite repairs where we can and we will continue that sort of relationship. They have placed a mandate, but when we drill into where they are referring to, most of these corridors are not owned by JPS,” Jarrett noted.

He said it is within the country’s best interest to have one body managing street lights and that JPS is taking on the task purely from a customer-service standpoint because it is not cost-effective.

ISSUE WITH STANDARDS

JPS CEO Michel Gantois said a condition exists where the Government must first bring the street lights up to a prescribed minimum standard, noting that the company would not assume responsibility for the infrastructure in its current state.

“Basically, the previous owners have let a lot of those lights go into disrepair. We are willing to say, ‘Okay, let’s do the right thing. Let’s takeover’. But, we want to make sure that we don’t take over something where the next day we have to go and spend millions to repair.

“We’re working with you before the transfer to bring it to an acceptable standard for the consumers and then we take over and do a normal job,” Gantois said.

Chief Financial Officer Vernon Douglas noted that “many” of the corridors were never built to JPS’s design standards, resulting in their failure.

“The focus was on building a road; not necessarily building a proper infrastructure incorporating a street light. You find that a lot of the wiring infrastructure cannot be located,” he said.

The KSAMC passed a resolution on Tuesday during its monthly meeting seeking the intervention of JPS to repair hundreds of dysfunctional street lights.

Councillors want to have the city optimally lit in time for the upcoming Emancipation and Independence celebrations in August.

During the debate, Jacqueline Lewis, councillor for the Norman Gardens Division, strongly expressed her disgust. She said that at least 80 street lights in her division were not working. Reports had been made to JPS in January.

Vineyard Town Division Councillor Andrew Swaby had argued that the JPS had a moral duty to repair the lights because it was being paid to fix them.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com