The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Editor

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION leader Michael Pintard said the government’s potential granting of private public partnerships (PPPs) for the generation and transmission and distribution at Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) “appears to be privatisation”.

Speaking at a Free National Movement (FNM) press conference yesterday, Mr Pintard said he understands that in June BPL will sign two PPP agreements, one for power generation and the other for transmission and distribution and that the agreement will make the operation of the utility “available for somebody else to execute”.

He said: “We understand that the generation of power BPL has been awarded to one company, a company that is known to this administration very well and some would go as far as to say is an ardent supporter of the Progressive Liberal Party.

“The second part of the operation of BPL is transmission and distribution and another company, the government has been in talks with in terms of them taking over that particular dimension.

“Now the government is going to be cute, as they always attempt to be and say this is not privatisation. It appears to be privatisation, that if you take your entire generation component and you make that available to another company to execute, and you take your transmission and distribution and turn that over to another company, it appears to me that the reason for your existence has been made available to somebody else to execute on your behalf. But there may be a reasonable explanation.”

He questioned how the government was able to enter into the agreement without conducting a bid- ding process and ensuring that they are getting the best offer and allowing qualified Bahamians an opportunity to enter a bid.

He said: “The most important question is, how in the hell did we get to this point where the government can enter into an arrangement without competitive bidding?

“Without advertising what their consideration is to give many talented Bahamians to an opportunity to put forward their proposal on how we’re going to move this cooperation forward; and how are we going to tackle the broader issues in the energy sector that directly impacts economic growth and ultimate economic development and how are we going to tackle the broader issues in the energy sector that directly impacts economic growth and ultimate economic development.”

Prime Minister Philip Davis yesterday denied rumours that BPL will be privatised and insisted that the government is bringing in “strategic partners” to generate the funds necessary to “fix” BPL.

He said: “We are not privatising BPL, we will bring in some strategic partners, for the purposes of being able to find the necessary funding that we the government don’t have to address some of the issues that we have and it’s a lot of money required to fix BPL and we have to find an innovative and creative ways to get that done.”

A press release issued by the Office of the Prime Minister said that the office is “committed to consulting closely with them and with other stakeholders as we work toward a brighter energy future”.

Mr Pintard, however, said Mr Davis has not consulted with shareholders on the agreement as the process must have developed beyond verbal agreements for the process to begin within the next three months.

He said: “He talked about this administration’s commitment to consult with all stakeholders, well, he didn’t do that so what he is saying is because the Bahamian people have become aware of his operation in the dark, and like always, once they are facing reasonable questions about unethical things that they are doing, they can make a public statement about their willingness to consult.

“We say they are late in this regard, because for them to at this point, have entered into verbal or writ- ten agreement and we get the impression it is well beyond verbal, would have meant that for once they have been having discus- sions with various parties about the future of BPL, which the PLP does not own the Bahamian people own BPL.”

The Office of the Prime Minister’s statement also said maintained “there will be no layoff of workers at Bahamas Power and Light (BPL), industrial agreements will continue to be honoured, and that commitments made to workers, including pension benefits, will be met” as the government works to bring “much-needed change to the energy sector”.

Mr Pintard yesterday questioned whether the government or the contracted firms will be responsible for paying worker benefits and if Bahamians will be allowed to purchase shares in the utility.

He said: “He intends to make sure that the benefits are honoured, everything in the industrial agreement in terms of employment pension all of those things will be honoured, the question is honoured by whom? Will they be on the government’s payroll? Will they be on the company responsible for power generation or will they be on the payroll of the company responsible for transmission and distribution? Have they actually worked out how all of those entities are going to work in tandem with each other? Our suspicion says no.

“What is going to be the share structure? To what extent will Bahamians be able to buy into this entity? And if this particular arrangement is to commence in June, do we have enough time to work on those details in terms of whether Bahamians would be able to be shareholders in this new configured companies?”