Bahamas Power And Light In Chaos
The Minister responsible for the Bahamas Power and Light company Desmond Bannister announced on 14 August that he was firing the entire board of the Bahamas Power and Light company. He refused to explain why. This from a government that said they were going to be open and transparent. The back story is the lady in the picture, an FNM general and a hard line FNM ideologue had been running the corporation as its executive chair, having left her day job as an accountant to run BPL. Her sacrifice is now in vain. The union was pushing for her to be reappointed because they felt that she was trying to get the place on its feet. She couldn’t get over the new Managing Reactor Witney Heastie and a fellow named Patrick Rollins, the latter of whom was being paid the princely sum of 186,000 per year to be both a director and an executive of the corporation. He is also the buddy of the minister. Push came to shove because the Board was bickering over the purchase of new equipment and the contract that was to go to Shell to build a new plant and switch to LNG. She wanted to go one way; they wanted to go another, reportedly with the corrupt company that sold BPL the machines under a previous FNM Board. The Minister decided they were ditching all of them but not quite. The two men survived and still work for BPL. She is gone, together with the directors who sided with her. Ms. Osborne presided over the demise of so many jobs at BPL is now gone herself. The power still cuts off every day with no end in sight. A new Board has been announced. Steven Holowesko is the name that sticks out. It appears that the FNM has no end of Holoweskos to pick from for Board appointments. We are all waiting to see Mrs. Osborne will tell her story since with the minister’s announcement it is clear that her integrity is on the line. The new Board which took over on Friday 17 August is:
STATEMENT BY HON. THOMAS DESMOND BANNISTER
MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS
In accordance with the provisions of section 8 of the Electricity Act, the following appointments have been made to the Board of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation with immediate effect as at the 17th day of July, 2018:
Chairman: Dr. Donovan Moxey
Deputy Chairman: Mr. Stephen Holowesko
Members:
Mr. James Moss
Mrs. Debra Wood
Mr. Ferron Bethell
Mrs. Viana Gardiner
A further announcement will follow in due course.