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MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2024
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Pintard on BPL: ‘How in the hell did we get to this point? By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Editor jsimmons@tribunemedia.net
BPL workers: We feel betrayed By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Editor jsimmons@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) president Kyle Wilson said employees at Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) have given “an outright NO” to the impending private public partnership (PPP) agreements for the utility company. It is understood that in the next three months BPL will sign two PPP agreements, one for power generation and the other for transmission and distribution with the company only taking on backend
t 5XP 111 BHSFFNFOUT FYQFDUFE GPS HFOFSBUJPO BOE USBOTNJTTJPO t 6OJPO TBZT JU XJMM AOPU BMMPX BOPUIFS #5$ UP IBQQFO t 1JLF $PSQPSBUJPO MJOLFE UPùDPOUSBDUùGPS 5 % t -PDBM QFUSPM TVQQMJFS MJOL UP QPXFS HFOFSBUJPO EFBM transactions such as customer service and billings. The transition will be phased in over 18 months and essentially split the utility into three.
Mr Wilson said that members believe the transition to be a “deal in the dark” as the government has not revealed the details of the deal to the employees or general public and
its regulatory body the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has yet to weigh in on the deal. He said: “Just pure pandemonium and frustration at BPL. We feel betrayed. After the meeting, I was given instructions by the membership that it’s a no, an outright no to this deal, this partnership or whatever they want to call it, especially in the face of what we perceive to be a deal in the dark. “They refuse to turn over any documentation. We don’t believe that it’s
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Condo development denied by Department of Physical Planning By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Editor jsimmons@tribunemedia.net PLANS for the Neveah Group Enterprises’ Palazzo Vista Del Mar project to be located on a 21,000 square foot site south of Da Plantation Bar and Grill off West Bay Street were shot down by physical planning officials who considered the project to be an “overdevelopment” of the site. The luxury condo project was set to feature a total of 20 three-bedroom units priced between $700,000 and $1.2m with an investment value of $18m to $20m.
The Department of Physical Planning said density limits the development to 30 people or 18 bedrooms on site. “Kindly note that the application was refused for the reason such as the proposed is considered to be an over-development of site and the proposal does not meet the minimum allowable density of 75 person per acre that limits the development to a total of 30 persons on site or 18 bedrooms for the development,” said the Department of Physical Planning.
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Bank signs agreement to back equality project THE Bahamas Development Bank (BDB) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) signed an agreement aimed at advancing the Joint Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Fund’s Building Back Equal project. The initiative, jointly led by UN Women, FAO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will support women-led businesses in the agriculture, creative, and tourism industries, and will serve as a regional pilot for best practices in gender equitable financing
in advancing small island developing states (SIDS). BDB is the national coordinating authority on the Joint SDG Fund and has played a crucial role in shaping the project’s design and implementation. The total contract allocation to BDB for the FAO-funded section of the project is $186,000. The proposed blended financing instrument is a collaboration between BDB and FAO, and will combine capital from the Bahamas Development Bank with non-reimbursable funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
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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.
MICHAEL PINTARD “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
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