The Tribune

The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s (URCA) interim chief executive says interaction with other supervisory bodies is critical to ensure it does not operate in a vacuum.

Shavonne Cambridge, also URCA’s director of utilities and energy, said regulatory effectiveness is driven by interactions with other agencies and their understanding of the supervisory process.

He spoke out as URCA, in partnership with the Public Utilities Research Centre (PURC) at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, hosted its second regulatory forum for senior technical officers at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel.

The forum attracted directors and senior technical officers from various government ministries and departments, private sector representatives, URCA licensees and academia. It enabled participants to deepen their understanding of URCA’s role as an independent regulator, and how its work impacts government policies and the public interest.

Attendees were introduced to tools and processes to enable them to better understand the roles of the three critical stakeholders in the regulatory process - the government, regulator and operator. The sessions focused on how regulations serve the public interest; current trends and best practices in regulations; infrastructure resiliency; and infrastructure leadership.

Mavis Johnson–Collie, URCA’s corporate and consumer manager, said similar forums and focus groups will be conducted to ensure key stakeholders are kept informed of URCA’s efforts in regulating the energy and communications sectors

PURC is an internationally-recognised academic centre dedicated to research and providing training in effective utility policy, regulation and management. URCA hosted the first regulatory forum in 2019, which was geared towards policymakers.