The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) has disconnected more than 6,000 residential customers, but is now exploring ways to return those persons to the grid as early as end-May.

“Right now we have in excess of 6,000 Bahamians that are disconnected, and we are trying to get them on as soon as we can by coming up with some plans to enable them to be reconnected,” said BEC executive chairman Leslie Miller.

“We’re working on it right now. We want those people on by the end of the month. We’re coming up with some new schemes for them to be reconnected. That’s our goal; after all it is their Corporation. They have an obligation to pay their bills like all of us, and we are trying do our best to work with them to enable them to be reconnected. We have an obligation to see to it that no one is without electricity; it’s an essential service.”

The latest BEC reconnection/amnesty effort appears to be an abrupt policy shift. The Corporation has recently been running numerous newspaper advertisements, warning customers to pay their arrears or face disconnection, as part of an enhanced collections effort.

And both Mr Miller and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently criticised reconnection/amnesty programmes implemented by the former Ingraham administration for lacking strict guideline to prevent those who ‘can pay, but won’t pay’, from exploiting them. The IMF, in particular, said BEC’s pre-2012 general election amnesty resulted in the further build-up of accounts receivables and impairment of cash flow.

Mr Miller, meanwhile, added that BEC was working on “every angle” to bring down the cost of electricity. “Everything is on the table. One of the problems we have with BEC now is this sick leave, it’s just being taken advantage of,” he told Tribune Business.

“So far for the year, sick leave is $3.2 million. People are just taking time off claiming they’re sick. The department heads and managers have to do a better job with their staff because it’s costing the Bahamian people too much money.”

Mr Miller who has been at odds with the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU), which represents BEC’s line staff, over the issue of overtime, said the cash-strapped Corporation, which last year spent more than $12 million in this area, should reduce that by $3-$4 million this year.

The union has taken legal action to remove the rostering system implemented at BEC as part of the Corporation’s effort to reduce overtime. Mr Miller also revealed that almost $500,000 had been saved to-date through a new system for workers hired to carry out reconnections/disconnections.