Pengelley
ENERGY MINISTER Phillip Paulwell is facing demands that he state his position on the future of the Energy Monitoring Committee (EMC), which The Sunday Gleaner yesterday reported is to be disbanded.
Key private sector groupings such as the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), and the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Associa-tion (JMA) have reacted to the report with fury, stating that they “cannot understand why the minister would be considering disbanding this committee this early in the project”.
The EMC was established by Cabinet as part of its mandate to monitor the bid process for the 360-megawatt generation facility, ensuring that it strictly adheres to the arrangements prescribed by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).
The committee is also charged with ensuring that at the end of the process, the price of electricity provided by the licensee to the Jamaica Public Service Company does not exceed the agreed price per kilowatt hour.
“We would very much appreciate hearing from the minister his reasons for not wanting the committee to pursue its mandate,” the JMA and the JCC said in a joint media release.
The EMC is made up of nine members from the Government, the private sector, and the trade union movement.
The Sunday Gleaner