OUR recognises staff at silver jubilee celebrations

Fifty-one employees, including the director-general, Ansord Hewitt, and his deputy, Maurice Charvis, at the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) were recognised for their service at its 25th Anniversary Long Service Awards and Dinner held at Terra Nova All Suite Hotel on December 8.

Nineteen employees served for five to nine years, 11 for 10-14 years, and 16 for 15-19 years. Hewitt has been working for 22 years, one year longer than the tenure of Nova Barnett, public procurement manager. Sharing silver anniversary honours with the OUR were Charvis, Ingrid Brown Cripps, property and office relations manager, and Venetia Cooke, records and information management officer.

Professor Alvin Wint, chairman of the OUR, Hewitt, and former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the guest speaker, addressed the occasion that was hosted by Yendi Phillipps.

In his address, Hewitt saluted the awardees for the contribution they had made to creating “a first-class institution, which, he said, with much “supreme” confidence, “will continue to meet the challenges of the times”.

He said it was a “source of great satisfaction” that 51 people, or 69 per cent, of the approximately 74 employees were being recognised for serving for between five and 25 years.

“At the OUR, we have cultivated a culture of resisting the influence of special interests, articulating very clearly what the principles by which we operate, indicating what we are prepared to do, and how we intend to do it, seeking public comment and input, reporting on what we have done, admitting what we had not done well, and advising what we propose to do to fix it,” Hewitt said.

Professor Wint said that in that capacity, he should remain relatively invisible. He put forward the view that the OUR was not on “a path of institutional frolic”, but is on a road of “institutional maturation” to help the Government avoid “temptations”.

Institutional maturation, he said, “is a journey of coupling technocratic capacity with effective oversight”. The OUR has been on that journey for 25 years, he said, and many of the celebrants have been a part of the process, and had helped the OUR to “have a very strong brand image”. He saluted them for the work done so far, but maintained that the journey continues.

CHALLENGES

He encouraged the staff to “gird up”, “because we are bound to continue to have challenges, we are are going to continue to have critiques”. “But, if we recognise that we are a part of the process of making Jamaica the best that it can be, working with like-minded Jamaicans to put Jamaica first, nothing can stop us from succeeding,” Professor Wint stated.

In his presentation, among other things, Golding said it is a “very fine line” that the OUR has to walk because there are conflicting interests and factors “that have to be morphed into some form of alignment”. He said, to its credit, the OUR has walked that fine line carefully, noting that its decisions “cannot satisfy” all the concerns of stakeholders.

However, Golding said the OUR cannot ignore, and cannot fail to recognise that the level of consumer dissatisfaction with the utility service providers is high. “I believe very sincerely that the OUR has to do more, should be more engaged, and monitor the internal complaint procedures, and the internal customer care arrangements of service providers.

“I believe that the OUR should satisfy itself that those procedures are adequate, and responsive. I believe the providers should be subjected to provide periodic reports … and I also believe those reports should be made public so that the public can form some judgement on the effectiveness of the consumer car management, and also the diligence with which the OUR is monitoring those performances,” Golding said.