The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

New Providence business owners yesterday said that last Friday’s island-wide black-out cost them thousands of dollars in lost sales, describing the situation as “extremely discouraging” and “unacceptable”.

  Tara Nolan, of Cole’s of Nassau, told Tribune Business: “Not only did it cost us time and money downtown, but at all of our locations at Lyford Cay and Atlantis as well.

“Now that we are in high season, we missed out on critical Spring Break sales, costing the company thousands of dollars. This is the time of year when we do most of our business, and after a slow summer last year and difficult transition to VAT, it is extremely discouraging and unacceptable to not be able to rely on basic needs such as electricity to run normal operations for your business. Especially when electricity bills in this country are so high already.”

Sarah Hugg, owner of Sarah’s Secrets, told Tribune Business: “The outage couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“Business owners are rallying to find extra funds to pay for Business License fees. Many of us are struggling to catch up, we have had to deal with a very sluggish economy, and have had to endure a difficult transition through implementation of VAT.

“The Government must consider compensation by way of lowering Business License fees this year to allow small businesses to catch themselves and keep their doors open. BEC is an essential service, which we pay a cripplingly high price for. Two-day outages should not be happening; it is 2015, not 1970.”

Businessman Etienne Christen added: “The BEC blackout is only the latest incident in a litany of incidents where, time and again, government proves that they lack the will or the concern to do things the right way.

“BAMSI, the dump fire, lack of serious border protection... the list goes on and on. Leaders lead by example, and our leaders simply do not set a good example. The situation is untenable in a modern democracy and Bahamians need to be outraged.”

He added: “VAT is here and there is no Fiscal Responsibility Act, no Freedom of Information Act, no transparency in government and no accountability to speak of whatsoever, and our leadership - despite all evidence to the contrary - claims that governments don’t do stupid.

“Those of us who live in the real world know better: Governments all over the world do stupid all the time; that is why we have democracies and the power of the vote. The Government has lots of money but does not have any transparency and accountability when it comes to the management of taxpayer funds. 

“That mismanagement of funds is directly responsible for the Government’s inability to meet and fulfill basic needs like uninterrupted and efficient power generation in 2015, or the timely opening of the new PMH ward,” said Mr Christen.

“The Gsovernment must begin to demonstrate that they can manage the funds transparently and accountably because, time and time again, they prove that not only are they incapable of doing so, but that they are not interested in doing so by failing to put the requisite safeguards in place and/or failing to follow the law pertaining to those safe guards, as happened in the BAMSI fire and insurance incident.”

The Bahamas Federation of Retailers (BFR), in a statement yesterday, urged the Government to “get on” with the BEC reform process.

“The government has known for years that BEC would need major reforms to handle the increased power needs that Baha Mar coming on stream would necessitate,” it said. “The Government has also known for years that burning Bunker C fuel to make power is not the most economic or efficient way to generate power.

“Solar, wind and tidal power are here, and being used in other countries, yet, in a country that prides itself on ‘sun, sand and sea’ and is at very real risk of sea level rise due to global warming, we can’t find a way to be at the forefront of solar, wind and tidal power?

“Where is the vision? Where is the sense of urgency? Renewable energy in combination with natural gas is the obvious way to go, yet theGovernment has dragged its feet on reforming BEC for years. Just reach out to a major solar and or tidal player and make a deal and reform the Corporation; get on with it.”

 A “fire in the trenches” at the Blue Hills power station caused the island-wide outage on Friday, which forced BEC to conduct load-shedding activities throughout New Providence over the weekend.

The Corporation’s executive chairman, Leslie Miller, explained that a fire erupted after an “overloaded wire” came into contract with oil that had dripped into the trenches at the power plant.