The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The National Insurance Board’s (NIB) chairman pushed for $42,000 to be paid to a company controlled by “a business partner” for an energy audit of its property portfolio, court documents allege, after another firm had conducted the same task for $3,000.

Algernon Cargill, the national social security scheme’s director, claimed that NIB management did not proceed to issue the cheque to Earth and Sun Energy Company, a company controlled by Gregory Smith.

Tribune Business’s sources confirmed that Mr Smith was at least a former partner and shareholder with Mr Moss in Freeport’s The Siboney Commercial Centre, backing Mr Cargill’s allegations contained in documents filed with the Supreme Court.

Those documents also disclosed the unhappiness of Theresa Burrows, NIB’s vice-president of business support, over the Earth and Sun Energy Company proposal.

In an August 13, 2012, e-mail to Mr Cargill, she balked at paying the full $42,000 fee up front and suggested paying only 50 per cent of this amount, with the balance on completion.

And Ms Burrows also suggested that one NIB-owned property should have been used as a ‘pilot test’, with the project extended to others if Earth and Sun Energy Company delivered on its promises of a 40-50 per cent reduction in lighting-related energy costs.

Mr Cargill alleged that Mr Moss had raised the Earth and Sun Energy Company audit proposal at their first social meeting at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel on July 19, 2012.

The chairman disclosed that Mr Smith, a former Star General Insurance executive, was “a business partner in his office complex in Freeport”, and sought Mr Cargill’s help in approving the project.

“The due diligence on this company indicated that it was newly incorporated and there was no evidence provided that the company had successfully completed any energy studies that were beneficial to its clients,” Mr Cargill alleged.

Documents filed with the Supreme Court show that two days after his meeting with Mr Moss, the NIB director received a letter from Mr Smith concerning Earth and Sun Energy Company’s energy audit proposal.

Touting the firm as having a strategic partnership with Illumination Logistic Services, Mr Smith said his company had provided recommendations to reduce the power consumption of all its clients “by double digits”.

“We are proposing to carry out a very detailed energy audit of the NIB buildings, and submit a comprehensive report recommending ways to reduce your energy costs by double digits,” Mr Smith wrote.

He also promised to lengthen the life of NIB’s electrical equipment by eliminating BEC’s power fluctuations, and added: “A major emphasis of our audit will be placed on the lighting at the various buildings.

“We will be submitting a proposal that will reduce your energy consumption costs for lighting by some 40-50 per cent. This is a significant savings.”

Mr Smith said Earth and Sun Energy Company required a $42,000 ‘engagement fee’, half of which would be applied to a contract for all NIB’s buildings.

He initially proposed that the audit be done on NIB’s Sir Clifford Darling Complex in Nassau, and the NIB complex in Freeport.

Then, in a July 30, 2012, letter, Mr Smith said that following a July 27 conversation with Mr Moss, they had agreed with Mr Cargill’s “requirement” to expand the energy audit to other NIB real estate assets in Nassau and Freeport.

In his affidavit, Mr Cargill alleged that Mr Moss requested that Ms Burrows prepare a cheque for the full $42,000 sum. When she did not do this immediately, he claimed Mr Moss went to Cecile Bethel, NIB’s senior deputy director of operations, and asked her to do this instead.

In turn, Mr Cargill alleged that Ms Bethel instructed NIB’s projects manager, Osbourne Moxey, to write the cheque but he refused.

In an e-mail, Ms Burrows made plain her concerns. She wrote: “I do not support the concept of full payment up front. Perhaps we can go with half down and the balance on completion of the assessment.

“I would have been happier if we used one of the NIB-occupied buildings as a pilot test, and then migrate to the other buildings if we saw an appreciable reduction in electricity cost.”

Mr Cargill alleged that he and Ms Burrows both separately told Mr Moxey not to issue the cheque, as “it was not NIB’s policy to pay in advance for any work to be completed.

“Secondly, we were not satisfied that any benefit could be derived to NIB from the study to be completed by Gregory Smith’s newly-incorporated company,” Mr Cargill alleged.

“Mr Moxey also advised that we had several offers for free energy studies, and had also completed a similar study in 2011 for approximately $3,000, and Mr Moss’ directive was to now pay $42,000 for the same type of work.”

This was allegedly relayed to Mr Moss by NIB management, along with the reluctance of Shane Gibson, minister of labour and national insurance, to approve the $42,000 payment.

Mr Cargill alleged that Mr Gibson told Ms Burrows not to proceed, “and the efforts to obtain the $42,000 payment from NIB were abandoned by Gregory Moss”.