Banking services disrupted in Lethem after vehicles hit utility poles – Chairman

Residents of the township of Lethem in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) were on Tuesday unable to access banking services because a disruption of this crucial service had resulted from heavy-duty equipment colliding with two of the utility poles in the region.
This was revealed by Regional Chairman Bryan Allicock on Wednesday during a telephone interview with Guyana Times. He detailed that power and internet services had been disrupted after an excavator and a truck had collided with utility poles in the community.
“The power went out because we lost two poles due to an excavator and truck coming into contact with the poles and the wires, including the GT&T (One Communications) wires also that feeds the internet connection to the bank,” he stated.
In this regard, Chairman Allicock revealed that while the power had already been restored to the community, banking services were still at a standstill because the wires had not been fixed.
“The Lethem Power Company Inc. (LCP) would have restored the power, but not the GT&T (One Communications) connections as yet,” Allicock stated.
Meanwhile, the chairman revealed that in an effort to ensure that senior citizens have access to their monthly financial obligations on time, the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) had sourced money to pay pensioners.
“The bank was good enough to give us money to pay pensioners, so the postmistress got money to pay the pensioners…,” the chairman said.
Additionally, he revealed that while One Communications has not given a specific timeframe as to when services would be returned to normal, the regional administration is hoping that the cables would be fixed and installed by today.
“We are hoping that by tomorrow [today] they should be finished connecting back the wires. The bank manager also said he is hoping that everything will be rectified by tomorrow [today],” the chairman explained.