NASSAU, BAHAMAS –
I have been fortunate enough to have lived a fairly long life and would have experienced and observed all of the coming and goings of first The Bahamas Electrical Company ; then The Bahamas Electricity Corporation and now the celebrated and much malaigned The Bahamas Power & Light Corporation.
Back in the late 1950’s and the 1960’s , the then BEC was managed by what was then an administration controlled mostly by the white and Conchy Joe oligarchies, the for runner of what emerged as The United Bahamian Party or UBP. My maternal family lived on Step Street, in the heart of Fox Hill. We had no memorable blackouts or frequent disruptions. Maybe, during rough weather or brief passage of a hurricane, there may have been issues with the electrical grid but nothing to talk about.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s there was yet another name change to The Bahamas Electricity Corporation when the PLP was agitating and later became the first majority ruled government. This era, allegedly, and backed up by available statistics in the public domain, was when noticeable increases in the frequency of breakdowns and/or lack of spare parts, that the overtime levels at BEC then started to rise. It was almost as if a normal 8-12 hours shift was NOT ENOUGH to keep generators; equipment and power lines up to scratch.
It is hardly known to the public, but personnel employed today at BPL as ‘meter readers’ pull down in excess of B$600.00 per week! One can only imagine what executives at the low; middle and upper levels are pulling in or down. There is no public disclosure of salary and wage levels. The Bahamas must be one of the few nations in the world where many governmental outfits, especially stand alone corporations & boards, where few knows what is being raked in by many employees.
They say if you were to actually tell Bahamians the real levels, they would TALK it and could ‘endanger’ individual lives due to robbery and extortion !! Well BLOW me down! Now it has been revealed by no less a person than Mr. Kyle Wilson, the esteemed President of The Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, that some months ago ‘someone’ or ‘entity’ made an attempt to BRIBE he and others. Mind you, he never disclosed who these individuals or entities are or even if he ever reported the matter to the Police.
Now it is being further bandied about in the public domain that certain, selected union executives, et al, are pulling in over B$100,000 + per annum in OVERTIME alone!! How is this possible and who all are the beneficiaries of such largesse. This is totally unacceptable and MUST be forensically audited and investigated by THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER directly and post haste!!
While the PM, a former Minister with responsibility for BEC/BPL etcetera, he might wish to also disclose precisely what current management at BPL, across the board and at all levels are being paid and for doing exactly what? For far too long BPL as it is today, has delivered inefficient and extremely poor services for the massive rates which Bahamians are obliged to fork out.
I have reached out to the current President of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, my good friend and fellow professed Christian, Kyle Wilson, to make a guest appearance on the #1 rated Talk Show, THE FINAL WORD, to dialogue with the vast audiences here at home in The Bahamas and, indeed the region. So far, he’s declined.
We need a frank and honest conversation about the REAL LEGACY at BPL. Big pay packages; BIG overtime possibilities; guaranteed service disruptions; no accountability; a BIG gussiemae! employee complement and, of course, a management team that my be in over its collective head. I also implore the PM to draft the Hon. Leslie Osborne Miller back to BPL as Executive Consultant on a short term contract. To God the, WHO will save us all from the grip of monopolized electricity. To God the, Who keeps the lights on, in all things, be the glory .
– Ortland H. Bodie, Jr.
