(KINGSTON, Jamaica, 2024 January 22): The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) in Jamaica has been appointed as Chair of the Organisation of Caribbean Utility Regulators (OOCUR), the association of regional regulatory authorities. The OUR will be represented on the body by its Director-General, Ansord E. Hewitt. The OUR last chaired OOCUR in 2016-2017.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) in the British Virgin Islands has been appointed Deputy Chair and will be represented by TRC’s Chief Executive Office, Guy Malone.
The appointments were made at the OOCUR’s Executive Council meeting on 2024 January 16 and will last for one year.
In reacting to OUR’s appointment, Mr. Hewitt says, “A major focus of this Executive Council will be to restore OOCUR to and beyond its pre-pandemic vibrancy. Consistent with this, the thrust is to resume the staging of the OOCUR annual conference, hopefully by November this year.”
In addition to the OUR and TRC, other members of the Executive Council are the Regulated Industries Commission, Trinidad and Tobago; the Telecommunications Commission, Turks & Caicos Islands; and the Fair Trading Commission, Barbados. OOCUR‘s Executive Director is Glenn Khan.
OOCUR is a non-profit organisation established in 2002 July in Ocho Rios in St. Ann, Jamaica with the specific objectives to assist in the improvement of utility regulation, to foster transparent and stable utility regulation through autonomous and independent regulators in the region, as well as to facilitate understanding of regulatory issues and sharing of information and experience.
The General Assembly is OOCUR’s governing body and is made up of the following member regulators: Fair Trading Commission, Barbados; Independent Regulatory Commission, Dominica; the OUR, Jamaica; Public Utilities Commissions of Anguilla, Belize and Guyana; the Regulated Industries Commission, Trinidad and Tobago; Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority (URCA), the Bahamas; the Telecommunications Commission, Turks and Caicos Islands; TRC, British Virgin Islands and Virgin Islands Public Services Commission, US Virgin Islands. Energie Autoriteit Suriname (EAS) of Suriname was also recently approved as a member of the OOCUR’s General Assembly.
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Contact: OUR’s Public Affairs Unit: publicaffairs@our.org.jm – 876-968-6053
