The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE firm at the centre of the Renward Wells Letter of Intent (LOI) controversy yesterday said the Government mistakenly omitted it from the list of New Providence landfill bidders.

Jean-Paul (JP) Michielsen, Stellar Energy's chief executive, told Tribune Business he had already been in contact with government officials to ensure the error was rectified and the company included as the 18th Expression of Interest (EoI) on the management contract.

Confirming that Stellar submitted its EoI on December 5, 10 days before the deadline, Mr Michielsen reiterated his belief that a waste-to-energy plant such as the one proposed by Stellar was the only way to generate the revenues/cash flow necessary to turn the landfill into a sustainable economic asset. "We did submit, but the Ministry of Finance made a little mistake," he revealed. "I was talking to the [acting] permanent secretary at the Ministry of the Environment, Janice Miller, this morning and they will send out a new list that shows Stellar's name in there.

"The Ministry of the Environment has our submission; we submitted on December 5, but it seems the Ministry of Finance misplaced our bid. We submitted both electronic and hard copies, and I have a receipt for the latter. It's not in question, or that there's any doubt. They just misplaced it in Finance."

As revealed by Tribune Business on Thursday, the 17 bidders acknowledged by the Government are BISX-listed Bahamas Waste; Providence Advisors, the Bahamian investment house; Bahamas WTP Ltd; Clleen Water and Power; RRI Global; Eastern Waste Systems; OMNI Corporate Services; Marine Contractors Inc; Bahamas Processing and Trading; Valoriza Servicios Medioambientales; New Providence Smart Power; Gold Seal Industries; Supernova Dominicana; EnviroQuip; Apapa International (Nassau); NP Eco-Park Ltd; and EBT Services International and Gel Tech Solutions.

Sources familiar with developments, speaking on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper yesterday that Bahamas Waste appeared to have split from its fellow local waste services providers in the Waste Resources Development Group (WRDG) and submitted its own EoI.

The other WRDG members have remained with their financing partner, Providence Advisors, and submitted a bid under its name.

Mr Michielsen, meanwhile, said that having assessed the bidder list there were "one or two businesses that I wouldn't mind teaming up with" on the landfill's management and operations.

He added that "there's three things we would immediately do" should Stellar be awarded the contract to run the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway facility.

"The first thing is to make sure that landfill is secured," he told Tribune Business, "not just with a fence around it, but that it's safe for people to work and there are no more mishaps with fire out there.

"We'd make sure there is fire suppression equipment for people to use, and we'd start remediating and sanitising the site, and start doing the studies to build the waste-to-energy plant."

The feasibility of a waste-to-energy plant at the New Providence landfill site will be determined by the composition and volume of the existing waste, and incoming streams, given that not all trash is suitable for conversion.

However, Mr Michielsen argued that the construction/operation of a waste-to-energy plant supplying electricity to Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) was the only way to make the landfill profitable and sustainable.

"It's unviable without that component," he told Tribune Business. "That gives you the opportunity to mine the existing landfill as well as what comes in on a daily basis.

"It will be impossible to sanitise that site without a waste-to-energy plant that mines the existing site. We have to make a business out of it, and the only way to do that is to have a revenue stream from the Mega Watts sold to BPL."