The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A local investor group yesterday said it has partnered with the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s management union to form “the last bastion of defence” for Bahamian ownership and management of this nation’s utilities and national resources.

Don Demeritte, principal of the EPS Consultants group, which failed in its bid to take over the Windsor water plant, said the contract’s award to BISX-listed Consolidated Water meant that virtually all Bahamian utilities were now under foreign ownership and control.

Consolidated Water’s new 15-year deal effectively gives it a wholesale monopoly over New Providence’s water supply, and Mr Demeritte expressed fears this was the first step towards privatising the Government-owned Water & Sewerage Corporation via a foreign buyer.

Pointing out that the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) had already been placed under foreign ownership and/or management, Mr Demeritte argued that water was the last major utility still in Bahamian hands.

He added that EPS’s partnership with the Water & Sewerage Management Union (WSMU) had been forged to both fight the Windsor plant deal and argue the case for Bahamian ownership from a “nationalistic”, rather than political, basis.

And Mr Demeritte also asserted that the financial merits of EPS’s Windsor offer were stronger than Consolidated Water’s, and contrasted Leslie Miller’s defence of the Windsor contract award with his constant criticism of Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) foreign manager, PowerSecure.

The position taken by Mr Miller, as the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s chairman, appears to have pushed Mr Demeritte’s group and the WSMU to join forces and lobby for a new approach to outsourcing/privatising Bahamian utilities and natural resources.

“The union and my group are working collaboratively together to advance this much-needed Bahamianisation wave, and ensure it is at least preserved in certain areas,” Mr Demeritte told Tribune Business.

“In this particular instance, we are the last line of defence for Bahamian ownership and management of a utility company.

“BTC has gone, BEC has gone, and these are the preparatory stages to put this one [the Water & Sewerage Corporation] into the gone category.”

Mr Demeritte emphasised that the EPS-union alliance was not intended simply to oppose the Government, adding: “This is not political; this is pure nationalism and a last line, bastion of defence. After this, it’s gone.

“The union and my group are prepared to fight side by side, shoulder by shoulder, as water is the most important utility on this earth, and we want to preserve that.”

With the Water & Sewerage Corporation costing the Bahamian taxpayer $20 million-plus in annual subsidies to cover its annual losses and remain operational, most observers would likely argue that its privatisation is essential, especially given the Government’s strained fiscal circumstances.

However, efforts to ‘get the Government out of business’ appear, to-date, to have achieved mixed results. BTC’s performance under Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), and now Liberty Global, has been unimpressive, while the outsourcing of BEC’s management to PowerSecure also has yet to bear fruit.

This only strengthens calls, such as those by Mr Demeritte, for state-owned utilities, public enterprises and national resources to be privatised/outsourced to Bahamian investors and companies.

Mr Demeritte, a former Water & Sewerage Corporation chairman himself, also challenged the defence mounted by his latest successor of the decision award the 15-year contract extension for the Windsor reverse osmosis plant to Consolidated Water.

He, in particular, contrasted Mr Miller’s support for the BISX-listed company with his constant attacks on BEC/BPL’s new manager over its inability to resolve New Providence’s energy supply reliability woes.

“It’s interesting that the chairman [Mr Miller] made those comments when, just a few weeks ago, he stated that Bahamians should be managing BPL,” Mr Demeritte told Tribune Business.

“I am pretty certain that he will stand behind this line of defence if he was aware of the circumstances and evolution of this situation [at Windsor].”

Mr Demeritte did not elaborate on this, other than to criticise Consolidated Water’s past performance at Windsor and its other New Providence-based reverse osmosis plant, Blue Hills.

“When you look at the performance of this particular group over the years, there’s no way in good conscience that we can allow this to happen,” he said of Consolidated Water.

“Their track record leaves a lot to be desired. Our figures were better than their’s then, and are probably better than their’s now.”

Mr Demeritte provided no justification for these assertions, but it is thought his ‘track record’ comment was referring to a 2013 consultant’s report, which found that a 2011 modification to Consolidated Water’s contract for the Blue Hills plant enabled it to supply poorer quality water to the Corporation. This was cited as “a primary reason” for an increase in ‘red water’ complaints by customers.

Apart from Mr Demeritte, EPS’s members also included Robert Wells, a former Water & Sewerage Corporation deputy chairman; CFAL chief, Anthony Ferguson; and Higgs & Johnson partner, Leroy Smith.

However, Mr Miller, has brushed aside all criticism from both the WSMU and Mr Demeritte of the latest deal with Consolidated Water, adding that it was “in the best interests of the Bahamian people”.

The agreement calls for an 18 per cent reduction in the price of water purchased from Windsor by the Corporation, a cost savings that Mr Miller argued “cannot be matched anywhere in the world”.

He then hit out at the union, in particular, accusing the WSMU of “living in la la land” over its threat of legal action, and argument that its industrial agreement - which gives union members a 90-day ‘first shot’ exclusivity on all Corporation outsourcing tenders - had been violated by the Windsor deal.

Mr Miller also refuted criticisms of Consolidated Water, telling Tribune Business: “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.”