The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Leslie Miller yesterday slammed the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s management union for “living in la la land”, and pledged that the $8.9 million water supply deal with a BISX-listed company “will not be rescinded”.

The Corporation’s executive chairman, defending the 15-year agreement over the Windsor reverse osmosis plant with Consolidated Water, said the 18 per cent price reduction it had obtained “cannot be matched anywhere in the world”.

Brushing aside criticism from Ednol Rolle, the Water & Sewerage Management Union’s (WSMU) president, and Don Demeritte, principal of EPS Consultants, a rival bidder, Mr Miller said the deal with Consolidated Water was “in the best interests of the Bahamian people”.

And, hitting back at the union in particular, he suggested it had no cause for complaint given that the Corporation’s staff were receiving $8 million per year in pension and medical insurance benefits without contributing a cent themselves.

Mr Miller, though, effectively admitted that the Water & Sewerage Management Union’s (WSMU) industrial agreement gave its members ‘first shot’ at any outsourcing tenders and contracts - as reported previously by Tribune Business.

He also conceded that the terms of Consolidated Water’s previous contract contained ‘poison pill’ provisions that made it extremely difficult to entertain rival bidders for the Windsor contract.

Mr Miller said there was “no need” to issue a public tender and solicit rival bids because Consolidated Water already owned Windsor and its equipment, adding that the Corporation never received any proposals from either the management union or EPS.

“Both of them are wrong,” he said of Mr Rolle and Mr Demeritte. “They never submitted any proposal to the Board or myself as chairman. They’ve never seen a proposal made by them. None were submitted. Never did they call us to meet with any of them.”

Mr Miller, though, later appeared to contradict himself by referring to proposals that, unlike Consolidated Water’s, failed to include the cost of electricity in the per gallon purchase price for Windsor’s water.

“These guys never wanted to pay for electricity,” he added. “When you put the electricity cost in, their price was way above.”

Mr Miller directed most of his fire at Mr Rolle, who told Tribune Business on Tuesday that the union would likely initiate legal action to challenge Consolidated Water’s new contract on the basis that its award violated the industrial agreement with the Corporation.

The WSMU president argued that Article 29 of its agreement with the Corporation gave union members a ‘90-day exclusivity’ on all outsourcing contracts, such as the Windsor plant, a position that was upheld in January 2016 by the Supreme Court.

Mr Miller, though, blasted that provision, questioning how it came to be included in the agreement, and suggesting it ran contrary to all labour and industrial relations norms.

“With regard to the president of the union, they were able to sneak in a portion of a clause into their contract that says every time the Corporation goes out for a contract, the union is supposed to get preferential treatment,” the Tall Pines MP said.

“How the hell can that be when they work for the Corporation? They’ve got to leave the Corporation. They can’t be at the Corporation and get the contract.”

Mr Miller pledged that the Corporation would stand firm over the Consolidated Water agreement despite the union’s threats of legal action, adding that it would deal with the situation should it ever reach the courts.

“That decision has been made; it will not be rescinded,” he said, denying that a letter from Mr Rolle, inquiring about the status of negotiations with Consolidated Water, “came to my desk” or the Board.

“Rolle and them are out there by themselves in la la land,” Mr Miller told Tribune Business. “They’re really more of a nuisance than anything else. They don’t have the financial and technical capabilities to do the things these people [Consolidated Water] do.

“Every time we give them a proposal, they never come up with the money. All they do is come out with silly rhetoric. They need to stand down and do their job.”

Mr Miller, using tactics all too familiar to the BEC unions, then blasted the Water & Sewerage Corporation employees and unions for enjoying generous benefits at the Bahamian taxpayer’s expense.

Pointing out that the Government’s (taxpayer) subsidy to the Corporation was never less than $22 million per year, Mr Miller said the latter paid $3 million in health insurance, and $5 million in pension contributions, on behalf of its employees annually - without them contributing a single cent.

“I don’t know what the hell he’s bitching about,” Mr Miller told Tribune Business of Mr Rolle. “I don’t know what the hell he’s complaining about.

“I dare him to go to a private sector company and get a job with those benefits. They should be happy they’re here, are tenured, have got these benefits and the Bahamian people are paying for it, as the Corporation has no money.”

Under the terms of their agreement, Consolidated Water now has a secure, long-term 15-year agreement to own and operate the Windsor plant, while the Corporation and its customers will be supplied with 14 million gallons per week at an 18 per cent discount to the current price.

The BISX-listed company also has to invest $8.9 million in upgrading Windsor, one of two reverse osmosis plants that supply the Corporation’s New Providence customers, to ensure it meets performance targets.

Mr Miller said the deal was “made in the best interests of the Bahamian people”. He added that the Corporation had initially looked at a five-year deal with Consolidated Water to avoid ‘tying the hands’ of the administration that will be elected to office next year.

But when it became apparent that a longer-term deal would result in saving the Corporation and its customers “a substantial amount of money”, Mr Miller said it “made sense to give the Bahamian people more” via a 15-year agreement.

“These people [Consolidated Water] have done a decent job so far, have invested all their money into equipment, and never asked the Corporation for anything.

“The price was as good as we could have got anywhere else in the world. Why deviate from that by going with some unproven performer?

“You can’t take a chance and put Bahamian interests in new people’s hands. Water is a vital commodity for life. You go with people with a proven track record.”

Mr Demeritte and his EPS Consultants group, though, had argued that the deal with Consolidated Water “flies in the face” of the Government’s stated ‘Bahamians first’ objective, and the empowerment of local entrepreneurs.

They also questioned why the Windsor contract had not been put out to public tender, and rival bids invited, amid concerns that Consolidated Water’s wholesale monopoly on New Providence’s water supply has been restored.

Mr Miller conceded that the terms associated with the end of Consolidated Water’s previous contract made it extremely difficult to accommodate rival bidders, and effectively rendered a tender unnecessary.

“There was no need to get any bids,” he told Tribune Business, “because they [Consolidated Water] own the site, and own the equipment.

“There was no need to go out to tender. We don’t have the luxury of having someone else coming in. What benefit would we have gotten?”

Once Consolidated Water hit the Windsor water production target set by its last contract in July 2013, the Water & Sewerage Corporation could either agree a five-year extension or take one of two other options.

These were to either acquire the Windsor plant, and all associated materials and equipment, from Consolidated Water at an agreed price, or for the latter to effectively dismantle the facility and remove all assets.

Given the cash-strapped position that the Water & Sewerage Corporation and the Government find themselves in, these terms could be viewed as amounting to a ‘poison pill’ that favoured a new contract for Consolidated Water over any rival buyers.