The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

GOVERNMENT advisors are expected to soon meet with the selected bidders for the Bahamas Electricity Corporation’s restructuring with a view to discussing arrangements for the process, according to Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

Mr Davis, who has responsibility for the corporation, said yesterday that the Christie administration received final advice from its advisors on the matter.

In the lead up to the decision on whether BEC will be split into two or remain as is, Mr Davis said the government was holding firm to its promise to the Bahamian people regarding steadily reducing the cost of electricity to households.

He remained tight-lipped on further details.

Mr Davis said: “With BEC, we are still steadily moving along to try to achieve our ultimate goal and fulfil the promise we made to the Bahamian people in our charter for governance and that is to lower the cost of electricity. We have done that, but I don’t think that we have done it sufficiently enough. I am not satisfied with where we are at now.

“We are still pursuing the goal to restructure BEC. The requests for proposals (RFP) is still open and we have just gotten our final advice from our advisors. Hopefully they will be sitting down with the selected bidders within the next week or two to start discussing an arrangement between ourselves and them.”

The comments come the day after several areas in New Providence suffered power loss for up to five hours. The widespread disruption in service was the result, BEC officials said, of a thunderstorm on Tuesday morning.

In a press statement, officials confirmed that there were challenges with the power generation network because lightning bolts struck several units at BEC’s Clifton Pier Power Station, causing them to fail.

Last month, Mr Davis said both he and Prime Minister Perry Christie had agreed on a deadline of August 31 for the government to have a specific path to restructuring BEC.