JPS: Jamaica's Problems Summarised

Orville Taylor, Contributor

As a 20 per cent stakeholder in the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS), the US$3-million loss suffered up to September last year must be more than bothersome to the Government. In 2012, the company raked in US$864.7 million in revenue between January and September.

A year later, it wasn't a rake but a hoe, as the figure fell to $816.3. Whatever its profitability in the past, it is making less now and it needs to increase its earnings. It is the working poor who struggle to pay their light bills, while working like nowadays slaves who have to pick up the slack. However you spin it and whatever the diatribe, any loss of profitability in the JPS will make JPS, 'Jamaican People Suffer,' while 'JLP and PNP Survive'.

Up to September last year, the company's long-term debt was reduced to US$831 million, coming from US$858 million in 2012. Its petroleum bill also decreased, moving to US$626 million from the US$657 million it was in 2012. Nonetheless, the revenue stream has run low with a strange ironic twist. Amid the cries for conservation and the mandate to engage other sources of energy, such as the token usage of solar and wind energy, consumption, as measured by bill-paying bona fide consumers, fell by 3.8 per cent. Note, the JPS is part of a campaign to discourage the utilising of its services.

There is a fellow, monikered John Anthony, who floods our email inboxes, rants and challenges everything about governance and public intellect in this country, except his own grammar. However, he has consistently baulked at the advocacy of solar energy and other alternative sources of energy, because it would reduce the number of paying customers. He is on to something here; because, unless the JPS maintains a solid base of paying customers and seriously reduces the cost of generating energy, our electricity bills will rise faster than dough on steroids. The spin-off effect would be unimaginable, because everything that we consume or export in this country is directly linked to the price of electricity. Indeed, even the credibility of the energy minister is indexed to the ability to deliver cheaper energy to the Jamaican people.

Company history

JPS is a microcosm of Jamaica's governance and its choices since Independence. A post-Emancipation entity, it began in the late 1800s and, after the consolidation of several providers, it became the JPS in 1923, just a few years before Garvey returned and wrote his manifesto. Notably, Garvey's vision, advanced in his 1929 manifesto, included the provision of cheap electricity for the productive sector. It was a no-brainer, and thus quite within the capabilities of political leaders then and now.

In 1966, when the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) was in place, the JPS was given a national monopoly by the Government. Four years later, a sensible government acquired majority shares, and this lasted for more another 31 years. Government's responsibility was, first of all, to ensure that electricity was provided to the majority of the population at the lowest possible cost.

Now given that the main component of our energy generation is petroleum and paid for in American dollars, Government must have a macroeconomic policy that is keen on keeping the Bustamante dollar stable and in a healthy state as compared with the American currency.

However, as owner and managers of the entity, its mandate must have been to keep it afloat and, if not profitable, at least not running break-even.

We can raise all the arguments of governments not typically being efficient managers, but since privatisation, in 2001, the efficacy of the various management teams and owners is moot. Nonetheless, what is indisputable is that in the same mid-1960s, government, as political administrator, not employer, made decisions to create, along with the parliamentary Opposition, garrison communities. These enclaves, fed by what Carl Stone called 'clientelism', were simply nurtured by politicians into a sort of political dependency and patronage.

What is significant is that there was no widescale policy to reduce real poverty and to uplift these 'ghettos' or 'inner cities'. By the end of 2000, the majority of persons in this country listed as poor were also measured as employed. Thus, the reality is that, in these communities, presided over by some of the most popular politicians, real poverty precludes households from being able to afford electricity. So, let us congratulate our governments for creating a large army of poor people, even when there was economic growth.

Along four of JPS's main lines, there are 10 communities which are major power thieves. And in deference to the politicians who are reportedly cooperating with the JPS, I will not list them. Nevertheless, between 70 and 90 per cent of households in these communities do not pay for electricity. As a result, the JPS loses some J$1.3 billion monthly, for a total of almost J$16 billion annually. Indeed, some of those who throw up wires and 'bridge' meters are without conscience. However, I am willing to bet that the majority of the poor in these communities simply cannot pay. How do you pay for light when there is no work? Yet, the JPS has to keep the communities' street lights lit, because of the danger of leaving these volatile places in blackness.

Yet, the dilemma is that while not trying to further marginalise the poor, it is unfair to the compliant working poor to whom JPS passes on 50 per cent of the loss from electricity theft. That is as unjust as free inner-city housing when a 20-year contributor to the NHT cannot get a house as Michael Manley intended.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel, because the September 2013 JPS debt, measured at J$103: US$1, will increase in real terms, since it is virtually J$111 now.

Still, JPS has to collect, because the corners of the working poor will get darker.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.