NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Opposition leader Michael Pintard yesterday in Parliament dismissed suggestions that the government and Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) did not have the $40 million needed to finance fuel hedge trades, arguing that there was “no cost” associated with the execution of those trades.
While making his contribution to the Investment Funds Bill 2022, Pintard slammed the Davis administration over what he called its lack of transparency, pointing to the fuel hedge controversy once again.
Works Minister Alfred Sears last week during a press conference admitted to misleading Parliament by initially denying he was briefed on the Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) fuel hedge plan.
Sears claimed that Financial Secretary Simon Wilson had rejected the company’s request to execute the hedge trades. The hedge trades were intended to secure BPL extra fuel volumes below market prices, as global oil prices were beginning to rise.
Pintard has repeatedly blamed the Davis administration for rejecting the proposals which he said could have saved the Bahamian people some $100 million.
Pintard said in Parliament yesterday, “In correspondences that the Member of For Charlotte is written to, It is made clear that there is no cost associated with the executions of the hedge program that would be left with BPL. It is a pass-through cost that gets to the consumer.”
“It is untrue, there is no such cost.”
Pintard continued: “When we talk about energy that is one of the natural rescues of The Bahamas. This is a group that wants the public to take them seriously as overseers of our natural rescues when we have clear examples of their abuse of the authority they have mangling one of the single largest resources we have in the country.”
Pintard also called on the government to present proof to Parliament that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) did not support the fuel hedge program, a claim Pintard attributed to Sears.
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