The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Electricity Corporation (BEC) customers could soon be facing a tariff increase, a former Cabinet minister warned yesterday, telling this newspaper that they would inevitably be burdened with bringing the Corporation out of its financial “tailspin”.

Phenton Neymour, the former minister of state for the environment, who had direct responsibility for BEC and the energy industry under the Ingraham administration, said executive chairman Leslie Miller needs to “come clean” with the Corporation’s full financial position and indicate how many persons have been hired since the May 7, 2012, general election.

Mr Neymour’s comments came after Mr Miller revealed yesterday that the Corporation has already suffered a financial loss of $12.7 for its 2013 first quarter, and if that trend were to continue it stood to lose in excess of $40-$50 million for the full-year.

“When the Free National Movement left office, we had brought BEC to the point where it had broken even,” Mr Neymour said.

“When we came to office in 2007, BEC was incurring a loss from that time. The figure that’s being projected, BEC has never lost that figure under the FNM, and the primary factor that contributed to BEC incurring the loss was a rate reduction that was implemented under the PLP.”

Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) chairman, Bradley Roberts, has repeatedly described claims that the Corporation was mismanaged under the PLP as bogus propaganda, claiming that both the FNM and PLP had been on one accord regarding the rate reduction issue.

But Mr Neymour added yesterday: “The challenges that BEC now faces, first of all from an executive level in management, you now have a chairman who has little experience in running a utility.

“Previously, you had myself, who was an engineer, who had spent considerable years in a utility. You had Mr Michael Moss, who was a manager in the industry throughout the Caribbean as the chairman. You now no longer have that technical support from a government managerial level being given to BEC.

“In addition to that, you don’t have the proper analysis being done in regard to BEC’s operational challenges. BEC, in my view, is going to be faced in a short time with a rate increase. That is the message Mr Miller is preaching, that the Bahamian people are going to be burdened with bringing BEC out of this tailspin.”

Mr Neymour added: “Mr Miller needs to come clean with BEC’s full financial position. Also, I think what Mr Miller needs to outline today is how many employees have been hired since May 7, because that figure has increased.

“I’m talking about persons also employed on a contractual basis. I’m asking him to be just as transparent as I was. When the FNM left office in 2002, BEC had approximately 980 employees. When it came to office in 2007, BEC had 1,090 employees. When we left office in 2012, the BEC employee count was very close to where we left it in 2002, which was just below 1,000 employees.”