NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Desmond Bannister said former Bahamas Power & Light CEO Whitney Heastie cried in his presence while threatening to resign as CEO because he could not work with former chairperson Darnell Osborne.
This comment is one of many claims in Bannister’s new witness statement that portrays Osborne negatively. He accuses her of victimizing staff because of their political affiliation and of having a dictatorial style of leadership.
His statement, filed recently, comes after Osborne, Nick Dean and Nicola Thompson sued the government for wrongful dismissal, misfeasance and slander. It is by far Bannister’s most detailed commentary on the affair that brought down BPL’s board in 2018.
Although Bannister is no longer a defendant in the matter, he said he made the witness statement on behalf of the attorney general.
He claimed in the statement that Osborne and Thompson continuously pushed him to increase Osborne’s allowance “since in their view the standard allowance that had been approved by cabinet was insufficient for Mrs Osborne”.
He said he never agreed to this because board service has never been considered employment and BPL board members received better remuneration than those on other boards.
“An appointment to a government statutory board is not considered an agreement to employ or an employment contract,” Bannister said.
“I was aware of the fact that these highly educated persons, such as the plaintiff, who now assert that they were employees, never volunteered to pay NIB contributions, nor did any of these ask the corporation or the company to pay national insurance contributions on their behalf during their respective tenures on the boards.”
In her witness statement, Osborne claimed she has suffered financially and struggled to find employment since leaving BPL’s board. She said prior to joining BPL, she left her job and its higher salary.
In his statement, Bannister said: “From the time that I met Mrs Osborne, which was almost a year prior to her appointment to the BEC board, she had advised me that she was negotiating the terms upon which she would be departing her employment because, in Mrs Osborne’s own words, the men that she worked with were mostly misogynists, and she wanted to spend more of her time overseeing her Dairy Queen franchise.”
Bannister said he never told Osborne to leave her previous employment.
“It was my understanding based on her own words, that her departure was a fait accompli prior to the BEC appointment ever opening. I was also aware that the post of chairperson at BEC had been adequately filled in the past by persons who served on a part time basis,” he said.
He also claimed that though he never promised Osborne the executive chairperson post, she asked to be appointed to that position shortly after she was appointed chairperson of BEC.
“A few months later I prevailed upon cabinet to change her title to executive chair, and cabinet did so,” Bannister continued.
“Shortly thereafter, an email was sent to me by Mrs Thompson which inter alia requested that BPL pay Mrs Osborne $300k per annum as executive chairperson, a sum that was five hundred percent in excess of the salary that the government of The Bahamas had paid any chairperson of any board in the history of our country appointing boards to provide a public service,” he said.
“Moreover, the payment of such remuneration to her would have caused a ripple effect in how all executive chairpersons were remunerated. I rejected her proposal immediately as not being in the best interest of the already debt-ridden BPL.”
In his witness statements, former BPL board member Ferron Bethel said Osborne complained about how often Heastie and board member Patrick Rollins were allowed to travel.
Bannister, in his statement, said Heastie and Rollins were the most suitable people to travel on the trips because the former was the only member of the board who previously led an electricity utility company and the latter was the only electrical engineer on the board.
He accused her of victimizing “innocent Bahamian professionals”.
He said early in her tenure Osborne fired the corporate secretary, Lenise Flowers, because she was a PLP, despite his expressed view that no person should be discriminated against because of their perceived political views.
He said although he expressed his concern about the unfairness of her actions, Osborne gave instruction for the termination of Tamika Roberts using a “similar untenable political justification for her actions.”
He said she further terminated then Executive Director Deepak Bhatnagar despite his advice that she not do so.
He said the “strapped utility company” had to pay Bhatnagar the balance of his contract because he was terminated without cause prior to the scheduled end of his contract.
He said Osborne soon began to lobby him for the executive director post “which had just become vacant as a result of her actions.”
Ultimately, he said he decided giving her the post would be irresponsible given her “unacceptable conduct and the financial state of BPL”.
He said he instead appointed Rollins to the post “at a reasonable salary, since he was an engineer and I knew him to be a most competent manager.”
Bannister said Osborne’s allegedly dictatorial style of leadership was a challenge he constantly faced.
“On one occasion the CEO came to me in tears and advised that he was resigning because he could not deal with her any longer,” he said.
“Mr Heastie was a highly effective CEO. I was concerned about his wellbeing and asked him not to resign.”
He said at a meeting he later arranged, Heastie explained his issues with Mrs Osborne respectfully.
He said he was shocked to see Osborne “castigate Mr Heastie in a rude manner and loud voice”.
“She appeared to be totally out of control,” he added.
Bannister said over the next few weeks, Heastie, Rollins and Bethel all threatened to resign from the board because of Osborne.
