JAMAICA Public Service Company's President & Chief Executive, Kelly Tomblin, has announced the appointment of 15 new parish managers as part of her efforts to transform the light and power company into a more customer-centred organisation.

The parish manager appointments form part of a comprehensive organisational restructuring currently in progress at JPS.

"We are changing the way we serve our customers," Tomblin said in a statement issued by the island's major electricity provider yesterday.

"We are decentralising our operations, so that decisions about serving our customers in the parishes no longer need to be made at the head office. Our aim is to create a more personal connection with our customers, so we are strengthening our service delivery capabilities at the local level."

In this regard, JPS has also appointed three new directors who will have oversight for its regional operations. Omar Sweeney, who was most recently at the Planning Institute of Jamaica, will be responsible for JPS' Eastern region; Keith Garvey, previously general manager of the Rural Electrification Programme (REP), is JPS's new director of Region South; and Blaine Jarrett, previously director of transmission services at JPS, will now head the company's Western operations.

In addition to two of its new regional directors, almost half of the newly appointed parish managers are from outside of the company.

"The recruitment of business executives and professionals from outside the organisation is the first phase of our organisational transformation," Tomblin said.

"We are excited about the new direction that JPS is taking, and the value and new perspectives that these new executives will bring. Our customers will definitely be seeing and feeling the new JPS before long," she said.