“We are going to hold Wartsila accountable” – President Ali

– Penalties possible as contract being reviewed

President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has made it clear that Wartsila Corporation will be held accountable for the emergency shut down of the 46.5 MV power plant on Friday evening.

The President explained that the Attorney General, along with the Guyana Power and Light, will be looking into the Operate and Maintain contract signed with the company. The Attorney General will be looking to see if the company is supposed to have a certain amount of human resource on the ground. This comes on the heels of Wartsila Corporation stating that they have to bring in an engineer to look at the power plant.

“We are going to hold Wartsila accountable. Whether you are an international contractor or you are a regional contractor or local contractor, I have made it very clear. You will be held accountable for the work you do in this country. So, they have to fix it and they have to get it up and running,” Dr. Ali said.

President Ali also noted that once there are penalties included in the contract, they will be applied.

“I have asked him (AG) to examine this contract and to see whether there are penalties when you have shut down like these. Because if you have an O and M contract, there must be performance indicators… All of that has to be examined in the context of the contract and once there are penalties, the penalties have to be applied,” President Ali stated.

The emergency shutdown of the $10.8 billion power plant was to avoid a massive explosion. Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips on Friday evening said the project which began under the previous administration had poor management. The Prime Minister said government since taking office has been dealing with a lot of corrective work as they tried to implement the project.

With the shut down of the power plant, several areas have experienced load-shedding.