The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

IT COST the government less than $15,000 to hire four American consultants from the firm PowerSecure to assess the challenges at the Bahamas Electricity Corporation after an island wide blackout on July 3, according to BEC executive Chairman Leslie Miller.

Mr Miller said the fee is “peanuts” compared to the amount of money that was lost when engines at both the Blue Hills and Clifton Pier plants shut down unexpectedly.

Mr Miller said despite the opposition he faced from the union leaders representing workers at BEC, hiring the consultants was in the best interest of the country. In fact, he said, if union members were “doing their jobs” properly the blackout “would have never happened in the first place”.

“People were angry that we brought them here,” Mr Miller said at a press conference at BEC headquarters. “The union was raising hell. It bothers me that you raising hell because we bring in someone to look at the system with you, but the lights went out. If the lights went out for a whole day and people suffering, would it not be prudent to bring some people in to look at the system? They telling us they don’t need no help, well if they didn’t need no help then why the hell did the lights go out? And then a few days later they went out again.”

“We don’t bring people in here just to bring them here, we bring them here to rectify a problem that affects all of us. It cost less than $15,000, peanuts compared to the blackout. Yet when you say you will bring in someone to assist, they mad. What you mad for? If you were doing your job so good, it (the blackout) wouldn’t have happened.

“So I am asking for a second opinion. If you had a heart attack and one doctor say you will die tomorrow, you go to another and get another opinion. That is all I am trying to do. It is $15,000 compared to the entire country being without light.”

Mr Miller also defended the government’s decision to hire PowerSecure – one of the five remaining bidders on the management contract for the corporation’s transmission and distribution segments.

He said: “The request for proposals process is finished. The prime minister just has to make a decision as to who they will go with, but the recommendations were finished months ago. We called PowerSecure because that is the company that does most of the work for Florida Power and Light and one of the largest utilities in the United States. They were the quickest ones to respond, they are right in Florida and are familiar with the hurricanes and problems that we face as an island state.

“So we felt comfortable with bringing them because they are familiar with our system, that is why we brought them in. We placed a call and the next day they were here. Within 24 hours they flew down four men that came and tried to assist and haven’t even sent us the bill yet. That is the kind of company they are.”

Mr Miller said the report on BEC’s issues is now in the hands of Prime Minister Perry Christie and Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis. He said it will be released to the public “shortly”.