MANCHESTER, Jamaica— Mayor of Mandeville and councillor for the Royal Flat division Donovan Mitchell this morning scolded the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) for how it deals with the theft of electricity and its billing mechanism.

Mitchell, who was addressing the monthly meeting of the Manchester Municipal Corporation, also accused the utility company of “robbing” its customers even as he made allegations of meter readers turning a blind eye to illegal connections.

He questioned the company’s policies and is calling on the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to step in.

“We need to know the policy by which you deal with loss adjustment and know we need to know the policy by which you repair streetlights, because I can’t call [local operations manager] about the light in front of the Mandeville Regional Hospital [to say] kindly look at it as a matter of urgency,” Mitchell said.

“You have removed that from me as the citizens’ representative, that is what JPS has done. I don’t know who in Kingston to call,” he argued.

“It is a total disgrace as to what is happening to us as customers. They have to do better and OUR needs to step in and do better,” he said.

Kasey Williams