The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Water & Sewerage Corporation’s chairman yesterday hit back at the Opposition leader’s criticism of its mass disconnection exercise, asking: “Would he run his business in the red?”

Adrian Gibson told Tribune Business that the state-owned water supplier “cannot continue to be an albatross around the necks of the Bahamian people” through the annual $20-$30m taxpayer subsidies it demands to cover operating losses and capital spending needs.

Warning that this “status quo” was no longer acceptable, Mr Gibson said “a few thousand” accounts were likely to be impacted by a disconnection exercise that had resulted in a constantly “full parking lot” at the corporation’s University Drive headquarters this week as customers rushed to pay off arrears or enter into payment plans.

The Long Island MP was responding to Philip Davis, the Opposition leader, who sought to brand the disconnection exercise as “cruel and inhumane” on the grounds that it threatened to deprive customers - especially families with young children - of an essential commodity.

While agreeing that all Bahamians have an obligation to pay their water bills, Mr Davis said disconnections threatened to “do more harm than good”, especially in situations where Corporation customers simply cannot afford to pay.

“Let me make it clear: We must all pay our bills,” Mr Davis acknowledged. “However, it is incumbent upon the Government to ensure that where there is the supply of an essential commodity like water, that we do not cause more harm than good by disconnecting the water supply.

“The Corporation should make every attempt to work with customers, particularly families with children to ensure that the water supply stays on.”

Mr Gibson, though, retorted that no business - including even Mr Davis’s own law firm - could afford to operate without collecting monies due and owing from clients. In the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s case, these accounts receivables total around $45m, impairing its cash flow and forcing it to rely on the Public Treasury (taxpayers) to bail out delinquent customers.

“I’ve seen the communication from the leader of the PLP, but the reality is this,” Mr Gibson told Tribune Business. “We have done everything in our power to sensitise people to the disconnection exercise, and have given them every opportunity to pay their bills and enter into payment plans.

“The Corporation is a business, and I believe the leader of the PLP, he’s a businessman as well. He cannot run his business in the red, with a huge amount of accounts receivables. I can’t believe it’s acceptable for any other company or corporation to do so either.

“Just because we are a government corporation, we cannot continue to be an albatross around the necks of the Bahamian people or become comfortable with the status quo, which is relying on government subsidies and not collecting outstanding accounts receivables,” the Corporation’s chairman continued.

“This is an exercise where no one will be exempt. I’ve said on more than one occasion: If they find me in arrears, disconnect my account. If I want this as a service to be provided, and am being responsible, I must pay the service charge. That’s the reality of it.”

Many observers are likely to see Mr Davis’s statement as a prime example of why so many state-owned enterprises (SOEs), such as the Water & Sewerage Corporation, find themselves in dire financial straits and are forced to rely on annual multi-million dollar taxpayer subsidies.

Successive governments, and politicians, have refused to pursue deadbeat customers - especially those with the right family and political connections, and who can afford to pay but refuse to - for fear of losing votes at election time and other considerations.

Mr Gibson yesterday reiterated that such attitudes, at least where the Water & Sewerage Corporation is concerned, are coming to an end. “My role at the Corporation is to turn this place around, reform the Corporation and move it to a position of strength beyond where it has been in the past,” he told Tribune Business.

Such an objective, he added, will only be achieved if it collects all revenues due, improves operational efficiency and “handles our capital expenditure and training and staff development”.

The Long Island MP then disclosed that the Corporation’s Family Island revenue collection increase for September near-doubled, mirroring the performance in Nassau. Monies received totalled $600,000 compared to around $315,000 for the same month in 2017.

This took the Corporation’s total top-line to $4.2m for the month, around a 100 percent increase or double the normal $2m average for a period impacted by the traditional tourism lull and consumer spending on Back to School.

Mr Gibson also revealed that the Corporation plans to target “chronic” non-payers that use its sewage services, with some customers having failed to pay their bills for between five to seven years.

“Our exercise is not only related to water,” he told Tribune Business. “We’re also looking at means to address serious outstanding balances on the sewage system. We encourage those people to come in.

“We’ll shortly be taking legal action against those chronic offenders that utilise the sewerage system and don’t pay. We have a few cases where persons have not paid for the service for five, six, seven years.”

Suggesting total disconnections may be “way up there”, Mr Gibson emphasised: “We’re not discriminating in terms of who we disconnect. We’re not targeting any group or status.

“Over the last two days we’ve had many people coming into our offices. Every time I move around, the parking lot is full. People are parking across the road at University Drive. I think the response has been good. People are realising the Corporation is serious about its intent to claw back monies outstanding.

“We still have a bit of a road ahead of us in getting people to understand we are a business, and intend to operate as a business, treating our relationship with customers as it should be whether it

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