Hoy newspaper?s editorial today hammers the government for what it views as an irresponsible attitude regarding the present power crisis. ?The power service crisis may have several causes and explanations, but the fundamental reason for everything is the lack of responsibility with which the relations of the different participants in the power sector with the consumers has been managed,? writes the editorialist. The newspaper criticizes the fact that the government has never kept itself up to date in its payments to generators and distributors, with today?s debt owed equaling more than US$360 million and no timetable for the clearing of this balance.
The editorial writer says that instead the government has left the distributors and power generators a free hand to dish out blackouts as they see fit, a tactic the companies use to pressure for payment. ?The most abusive and oppressive consequence of this situation is that users who pay their bills are forced to suffer and even finance the blackouts,? says the newspaper.
The writer says that the government is an accomplice of the power distributors. The Electricity Law establishes that the power distributors must provide consumers with credits for the number of hours of blackouts sustained, but the government has been in collusion with the power distributors in their non-compliance of this legal requirement. The editorial also states that neither is the government interested in monitoring the companies? billing methods or assuring that they are invoicing as per the meter readings and not by consumer consumption patterns as is the usual approach. Furthermore, it says the government has not tried to make the distributors more efficient in their collections for the service provided, but rather has used the power subsidy designated for sectors of low consumption as a political tool, creating a paternalism that is reminiscent of the days of tyrant Rafael Trujillo.
?There are many factors that have an effect on our power crisis, many outside of our country, but none is so infuriating as the official irresponsibility in matters of relations with generators and distributors,? says the newspaper.