MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Digicel Jamaica Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Stephen Murad is appealing to the Government to impose stiffer penalties to deter individuals from stealing and vandalising telecoms equipment.

“Unfortunately, unless we change the penalties there is no deterrent — and that’s the reality of life — so, we need to beef them up. That is critical! That has been the reality for longer than the 10 years that I have been here but we need collectively to do that, apart from educating the public that, ‘If this happens, this is the consequence of it,’”  the Digicel Jamaica CEO said.

“I think [regarding] theft, we talked about that at the Cabinet meeting and the prime minister is committed, and it has been something that has been on the table for many, many years around the penalties for damaging critical infrastructure,” he added.

He was speaking during the Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee meeting in the House of Representatives Tuesday.

Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte underscored that Government views “the infrastructure for utility services as critical”.

“In case you are not fully apprised, the [Andrew] Holness Administration views the infrastructure for utility services as critical infrastructure to the State and goes to the core of the stability and security of the State in this digital era,” Malahoo Forte said.

“As the work is completed in the ministry you will see a response that demonstrates the importance that is placed on this infrastructure. We really have to get the people to understand that, in this digital age, the infrastructure that facilitates energy and telecoms cannot be tampered with in a country where we just take it because we want it,” she added.

Meanwhile, Murad gave two examples of theft and vandalism that left customers in St Ann and Spanish Town, St Catherine, out of service in the past.

“[At] one of our biggest parishes, a big site in St Ann, they drained the fuel. So, no fuel in that tank, no service at all available for those customers at all, whatsoever. And obviously the customers, they don’t care — they just want to blame Digicel. We need to do more as a country,” he bemoaned.

“They [vandals] basically ripped the infrastructure to bits, and I messaged the commissioner [of police] at the time because I needed to get a message to all of his officers in there and find a way to communicate.”

He argued that “those things are very difficult to contemplate to the layman”, and explained that telecoms provider Flow and Jamaica Public Service are also “susceptible to theft and vandalism”.

“So we as a public need to come together, and obviously we need political power to help change legislation,” he said.

Michael Brown, technical director at Flow, also stressed that security is a major concern for their operations.

“Pre- hurricane we had 36 sites that were covered by solar. We moved up to 46 after the storm. However, eight of the solar systems were vandalised — they stole the panels,” Brown disclosed.

“In preparation for the hurricane, we engaged security personnel to be placed at some locations but, because of the cost, we couldn’t sustain that,” he added.