BAHAMAS Power and Light CEO Pam Hill.
By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMAS Power and Light (BPL) CEO Pam Hill said yesterday the utility provider is currently “not in any talks” with the government to forgive or write off any of its numerous delinquent accounts.
Ms Hill said there is currently no programme “of that kind” at BPL and she encouraged customers to continue to pay their bills on time in order to remain connected.
Her comments came three weeks after Deputy Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis announced that the government is working on a series of operational agreements with BPL with hopes of getting the corporation to forgive the debts of consumers who have been unable to settle balances for prolonged periods of time.
At the time, Mr Davis, who has ministerial responsibility for BPL, said he had been informed that some 3,000 persons have fallen into this classification, insisting that officials now have to look at these clients on a case-by-case basis to determine how best to resolve each matter.
However, when asked about the programme yesterday, Mr Davis shifted from his original comments calling the initiative a “consideration” and not something that was concrete.
“We have to discuss the context in which it will be done and how it will be laid in the context of their (BPL’s) overall business plan,” Mr Davis told reporters outside the House of Assembly.
“That is a matter we will deal with at an appropriate time, it is just one of many issues we have to address ... it was something that was for consideration. As the minister I am considering it and I am asking them to advise me on how it can done.”
At a press conference yesterday, Ms Hill said she believes Mr Davis is taking his time to structure the plan, but insisted that the company and the government have not begun discussions.
“We (have) had no talks and I know the Deputy Prime Minister is probably giving a lot of thought into what the structure might look like. We don’t have any such programme in place right now,” she said.
“So we certainly expect customers to be making the payments on their bills that will be required.”
Last month, Former State Minister for the Environment Phenton Neymour suggested that the plan was an election ploy. He told reporters that he did not think the plan was genuine and questioned why the Christie administration would bring back a plan it rejected when it was in opposition.
The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) launched an electricity assistance programme in June, 2013, in an effort to reconnect more than 7,000 delinquent residential customers.
BEC, which was renamed BPL earlier this year, ran another programme that month that offered residential customers in arrears who paid their outstanding bill in full a 10 per cent discount.
Residential customers who continued to pay their bills on time in June, July and August, 2013 received a two per cent discount on each of those bills.
The two-tiered campaign was expected to provide relief to customers and help improve the corporation’s financial state.
At the time, then BEC Chairman Leslie Miller revealed that 90 per cent of BEC’s 65,000 residential customers were more than 90 days past due - with approximately $26 million in arrears.
Comments
Publius 8 years, 3 months ago
The government doesn't know what to do with itself now that it cannot use BEC anymore for its political devices. Bahamians said they wanted private management or ownership at BEC, but I don't know if many of them realized that such a thing could lead to the place being run like an actual business - and businesses cannot operate and function by giving services for free. The Bahamas' refusal to lessen its dependence on fossil fuels for power generation is one of the key reasons electricity costs are so high nationwide. A depressed and stagnant economy with sky-high unemployment and a stunted private sector is one of the key reasons people cannot meet their essential bills. But we as a country are not given to focusing on the actual root causes of anything with the end of actually changing or addressing them. We simply resort to handouts, platitudes and band-aids for political purposes and are content to keep people exactly where they are.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 3 months ago
Pamela Hill needs to come clean with the Bahamian people by disclosing to us the total amount currently owed to BPL by the Bahamas government and its various departments and agencies. Rumors abound that the total amount of the government's unpaid electricity bills exceeds the staggering sum of $100 million! Perry Christie and Brave Davis are well aware of this but have done nothing to pay the government's past due electricity bills, which money BEC desperately needed and now BPL desperately needs to pay for urgently required maintenance and repairs to power generating equipment. Perry Christie and Brave Davis have together brought our country to its knees through their failure to ensure our electrical power generating needs were properly forecast and met. Can you imagine what our power outages would be like if the Baha Mar development were now fully operational and on the grid?!!! Notice how you don't hear Christie or Davis saying a darn thing about that!
TalRussell 8 years, 3 months ago
Comrade Bahamaland Power and Light CEO Pam -please tell taxpayers you is smiling cause fewer poor peoples lights going stay cut-off - all because the Pot cake Leslie, has paid the outstanding $100,000 he owed for the current BEC transmitted to his business establishments? If not, wipe that damn smile off ya face okay?
Comrade CEO Pam, you do knows that his matter made its way into the public domain and the public were never told if this outstanding current bill was in fact paid in full - and if yes was it paid by cheque or CASH?
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