Having done away with Bahamas Power and Light’s (BPL) foreign management team, Power Secure, and installing  a Bahamian management team, Minister of Works, Desmond Bannister said BPL still has a long way to go in addressing key areas.

Speaking with reporters outside of a  Cabinet yesterday morning, Mr. Bannister said that he did not know of any irregularities in accounts at BPL.

“I don’t know of any irregularities in accounts at BPL.  We have Bahamian management, Bahamian CEO, Bahamian COO, who are highly capable and from everything I’ve seen in BPL, there have been amazing changes.

“I think I spoke about that in one of the recent debates about the changes that are occurring in BPL, the ‘Bahamianization’ of management, the recruiting of professionals, the procurement process, of reform that we are conducting there, so that BPL is a company that all of us can be proud of,” Mr. Bannister said.

However, he did confirm that in a number of key areas, there are some critical issues that need to be addressed, particularly considering the recent weekend power outage in Abaco less than two weeks ago.

“BPL has a long way to go.  They have critical issues at Clifton that have to be addressed, they have legacy issues, they have critical issues in Abaco, as you have seen, and in a number of family islands.

“In fact, we are moving some generators from certain areas to go into Abaco now, to be able to ensure that we meet the needs of Abaco for the summer and by the same token, we are also looking at solar power in a number of family islands, but these are not overnight fixes.

“These are problems that have been there for decades and they are problems that we are not going to fix overnight,” Mr. Bannister said.

Mr. Bannister however, did advise that executives  at BPL will seek to make the power company a reliable one.

“We are determined that we are going to get the best of it, we are going to provide reliable power throughout the country,” he said.