The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) CEO will today announce that its embattled CEO, Charles Matthews will be leaving the light and power company, effectively ending a controversy-filled five-year stint, Observer sources said last night.

JPS officials contacted were mostly in the dark about details of Matthews’ leaving and the CEO himself asked the Observer to await the official word from the JPS, saying it would not be appropriate for him to comment.

“What I can say is that I love Jamaica and it has been great being here,” he said.

But Kingston was awash last night with the news that Matthews was stepping down, with suggestions that his contract had been renewed by JPS parent company, Mirant Corporation, but that he would definitely be leaving Jamaica, possibly for Trinidad and Tobago to run Mirant’s operations there.

Matthews’ departure, however, was not expected to come as a shock, Observer sources said, as he had been hinting at leaving for some time now.

“He had seen the writing on the wall and, in any event, was increasingly uncomfortable with the situation at the JPS,” one source said.

Matthews became president and CEO of JPS in March 2001, after the Jamaican government divested itself of majority ownership. But the stage had already been set for a public relations nightmare and a rocky period ahead for the tall African-American.

He assumed leadership of the company in the shadow of the intense controversy triggered by the $2.9-billion overcharging of customers between 1993 and 1997 that had to be repaid.

The overcharging issue incensed customers who saw the company as a bully which was insensitive to the economic plight of Jamaicans. Against that backdrop, Matthews’ reign at the helm would be repeatedly battered in the court of ‘public opinion’.

The JPS consistently received criticism for escalating light bills, with few willing to listen to its claims that rising fuel cost was the main culprit. Last month, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) announced a 12-week audit of the JPS, to determine the level of accuracy of its meter reading and the integrity of its billing process.

Customers bitterly complained that the company was inefficient, hence it relied heavily on estimated bills instead of actual readings. Then, the JPS’s ongoing proposal to increase rates to help recover from damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 was regarded as unfair, despite the fact that provision was made for it in the divestment agreement.

Things continued to fall apart when in March JPS and Paymaster signed an agreement for the bill collection agency to take over electricity bill collection at its 16 locations.

This was only a few weeks after Bill Express, Paymaster’s main competitor in the bill-collecting services industry, introduced a transaction fee of $30 plus GCT for each bill paid. Paymaster has yet to introduce a fee but told the Observer that it was likely to do so, something customers see as a doubling up of charges.

The controversies overshadowed some of Matthews’ achievements at the company and masked the energy he brought to the job.

Upon taking control in 2001, he immediately outlined a success plan for the organisation. The company’s three key objectives for the future, according to the CEO then, were to become the number one service provider on the island, improve and maintain a high level of reliability and to rebuild the utility company’s image through better communications and stronger relationships.

He spearheaded the implementation of JPS’s US$200-million generation expansion and restoration project which has seen the company’s reserve margin move from approximately 10 per cent to almost 30 per cent. And he also championed the company’s 24-hour call centre and the installation of a new Customer Information System.

Indeed, Matthews is credited with transforming a company that was haemorrhaging financially – posting $1.6 billion net loss in its financial year ended March 2001 – to a dynamic income-generating firm that was a credit to its US parent, Mirant Corporation.

JPS recently posted a 25 per cent increase in net profit during the three months to March 31, 2006, with profit after tax moving from $487 million for the March quarter in 2005, to $610 million for the first quarter this year.

Yet, it is for a string of unfortunate developments that rubbed customers the wrong way that Matthews is likely to be remembered.