J Paul Morgan, the director general of the Office of Utilities Regulations, said yesterday that after 10 years in existence the entity has proven itself to be more than “an election gimmick”, as was said in some quarters when the independent regulatory body was launched.

Speaking during a commemorative service at the Boulevard Baptist Church in Kingston, Morgan said the fact that the OUR has managed to attract criticism from both the government, companies, and consumers showed that it was successfully balancing its role.

“Over the years we’ve tried to deliver efficient services to our stakeholders. Our intention has always been to do the right, rather than the popular thing…through the delivery of safe, economic and reliable utility services,” the OUR director general told the gathering.

In his sermon, Reverend Vincent Graham of the Meadowbrook Church of Christ, in pointing to high number of killings in the first few weeks of the year, said if every individual paused to consider what their actions meant to God before acting, there would be fewer murders to account for.

“If everyone of us would stop and make that (assessment), we wouldn’t have so much killing,” Graham said. “This nation needs men of righteousness and holiness,” he added.

Quoting snippets of the acceptance speech of 1950 Nobel Prize winner novelist William Faulkner, Graham said Jamaica must “decline to accept the end of moral man”.

He added: “We must carry on the struggle for our children. We will push back hard against an age that is pushing hard against us. When we do, we will emerge victorious against the trials of our time. When we do, we will save our children from the decadence of our time,” said the preacher.