The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

WITHIN the next two to three weeks, Bahamians will learn of the government’s decision as to which entities, if any, have been chosen to restructure the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said.

And at that time, Mr Davis explained, the Christie administration will make known whether BEC is to remain unified or be divided into separate operations.

He further suggested that the government could decide against the submitted tenders and opt to restructure BEC on its own, despite months of scaling through proposals to find suitable entities.

Mr Davis said he was not aware if the Freeport Oil Company Limited (FOCOL) was invited to partner with InterEnergy, a Cayman Island based company. It is said that the company has submitted a proposal to the government for a BEC generation contract.

“At the end of the day,” Mr Davis said, “we (are) going to look at all of the proposals and we will determine whether or not we will go either route. Because all options are still opened to the government.

“At the end of this exercise, it might very well be that none of the tenderers have met the expectations of what the government would wish. In that light, it would all go away then we would have to fall back on trying to do it ourselves and finding a better means of doing it.

“InterEnergy is one of the companies being considered (but) we have not drilled down to determine the structure of ownership as yet.

“Now if they have Bahamian partners, I am not aware of it, nor am I in a position to speak to it,” he said.

Last month, Mr Davis told The Tribune that there were no Bahamian companies in the running for BEC’s restructuring. He said at that time there were five remaining bidders.

“We had a meeting with KPMG, who are the front runners in receiving, evaluating and analysing the bids, and they have just sent out a letter for further clarification to all the tenderers to identify their strengths and weaknesses and asking them to clarify a few things.”

At the time, he said, a report was to be made for evaluation before the Cabinet.

The bidders were said to have been waiting an allotted time for presentations to the government.