The Public Utilities Commission today issued a release stating that guidelines have been worked out between BEL and themselves in the regulation of the commercial wiring of homes. The release goes on to state that every building that is connected to an electricity supply from BEL must have a "fitness-for-turn on certificate" from a licensed wire man." What does this mean for those customers who are illegally being supplied by generous neighbors? Well BEL's Public Relations Manager Neville Samuel says those will have to be done away with.
Neville Samuels, BEL Corporate Communications Manager
"Under the laws of Belize no one other than the PUC can approve a permit to allow them for service connection. But you have a lot of instances countrywide where people connect from one customer to several other households at will. When we come across incidents like these, we basically write the parties that are involved and we copy it to the PUC who has the jurisdiction to enforce these rules and make sure that these unsafe conditions don't persist. As the regulatory body charged with enforcing it the PUC is taking a stand and saying this has to stop because we are endangering the lives of those in the immediate vicinity where the dangers are. But the PUC is also taking it further and saying that we are prepared to work with you. We are saying that you need to comply, you need have the service connected to your premise as opposed to being far away from your premise where it poses a hazard. And they are saying that let us sit down and try to get the connection onto your premise and remove the hazard that it presents when it is off the premise."
For persons wising to get a "fitness-for-turn-on certificate the PUC is making available a list of licensed persons to issue these from their offices.