The Tribune

By DANA SMITH dsmith@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company was privatised at a cost of nearly $28 million, according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. Before clearing the House agenda of all questions yesterday, Mr Ingraham tabled a question asked of him by Golden Gates MP Shane Gibson on the then "long overdue" privatisation of BTC. It was revealed the privatisation bidding process was "abandoned" after two of the four short-listed bidders pulled out and the offers from the other two "were found unattractive". The government approached "a number of other telecoms companies around the world" to see if they were interested in bidding. There was no interest. Those companies included AT&T, Verizon, Rodgers Communications and American Movil. Ultimately, Cable and Wireless asked to formally enter the process which was agreed to. The third privatisation cost $27,937,097 in regulatory costs, pension arrangement restructuring costs and privatization transaction costs, as stated in the tabled question-answer session.