Tra Fas De: Thirteen years without electricity bills: who paid for DNA?

EBS director Leo Brunswijk was clear: according to him, the members of De Nationale Assemblée (Suriname’s parliament, DNA) should first take a look at their own electricity bill before criticising the energy company. According to Brunswijk, DNA does not pay for electricity and there would even be reason to disconnect the parliament’s power supply.

DNA chairman Ashwin Adhin disputes this. According to him, parliament has no payment arrears because DNA has never received invoices from the EBS.

He also says that as early as 2013, DNA asked the EBS in writing to send the bills to parliament so they could be paid monthly.

And that is where the story begins for me.

Who paid for the electricity consumption?

Because if DNA has not received an energy bill since 2013, what has happened to parliament’s electricity consumption over all those years?

Has nothing at all been paid since 2013?

Or were DNA’s electricity costs paid by another government institution, for example through a ministry?

And if so: which ministry paid, what amounts were involved and over which years?

That should surely be traceable in the EBS’s records.

If no invoices were in fact sent to DNA for years, why did no one seriously address this again after 2013? Of course, responsibility for sending a bill lies primarily with the supplier. But when you know that you use electricity and do not receive a bill for years, do you not ask yourself: where is that invoice?

After all, we are not talking about a few months. We are talking about an issue that, according to the DNA chairman, dates back to 2013. That is now thirteen years.

Why did the EBS not intervene?

And why did the EBS not raise the alarm earlier? Why was this situation accepted for all those years? Why else would Leo Brunswijk say that there is a debt?

If the EBS was aware of payment arrears, why did the company not act?

Is this a case of improper administration?

In whose name is the connection for the parliament building actually registered? Who is listed as the debtor at the EBS? What is stated on that customer account? Is a debt actually recorded there? And if so, how large is that debt?

Because that is ultimately where the answer must come from.

Brunswijk can say that DNA does not pay. Adhin can say that DNA has not received invoices. But the EBS’s records must be able to demonstrate what actually happened.

That is called transparency.

Put the records on the table

If Brunswijk says that DNA should in fact be disconnected because of the payment arrears, he suggests that the EBS knows exactly which amounts are outstanding. Those amounts must therefore also be visible in the records.

What period does this concern? Which invoices were entered? And to whom were those invoices sent?

These are not complicated questions.

Put the records on the table.

Then we will know whether DNA indeed did not pay its electricity bill for years, whether another government institution settled the bill, or whether the EBS supplied electricity for thirteen years without properly invoicing.

Whichever of these three answers it is: something needs to be explained.