Former Minister of State for the Environment Phenton Neymour said Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) Chairman Leslie Miller is being dishonest in giving figures to the Bahamian public surrounding affairs at BEC.
Mr. Neymour, who has been in a back and forth with the BEC Chairman over the past few months over environmental issues concerning BEC, said the chairman continues to fabricate numbers at BEC to support his poorly constructed arguments and decisions.
“Evidence of his fabrication lays with his inconsistent and psychotic projected BEC losses over this fiscal year,” he said.
“First he said BEC will lose $50 million, then he said it will be $40 million and in the budget debate he was quoted as saying BEC will lose $22 million in the same year.”
Mr. Neymour said it’s not surprising to him that Mr. Miller would continue to use the protection given by the House of Assembly, where he cannot be sued, to tell untruths in a manner that he considers cowardly and without honour.
The former minister responsible for BEC said one of Mr. Miller’s untruths reportedly was that Mr. Neymour had never called a meeting with any of the management and executives of BEC while he was in office.
“One of my first activities as a minister in the Ingraham administration was to meet with members of the board of both BEC and the Water and Sewerage Corporation followed by executive managers.”
“It must be noted that Mr. Miller either clearly does not recognize the legislative responsibility of a minister or is ignoring it and the responsibility of the executive chairman, which he now holds. These are two different jobs where the executive chairman reports to the minister. The minster in this case would be Philip ‘Brave’ Davis.”
Mr. Neymour said that the chairman’s recent statement that BEC currently pays 25 people $12,000 per month to disconnect consumers’ electricity is either a lie or a blatant disrespect for the law.
He said that if you were to divide the $12,000 by the 25 people then each person would only be making $480 per month, or $110 per week, which is below minimum wage.
Mr. Neymour said there is something fishy about what’s going on at BEC because if there were 25 people hired to disconnect consumers with high overdue balances, why is it that they have not done their job and disconnected the chairman’s?
He also questioned what he called Mr. Miller’s bragging of disconnection for those that cannot afford to come up to date with their light bills.
As for the reconnection campaign BEC has going, Mr. Neymour said it’s good for the customers, but is bad for the company.
“They’re saying that if you make a payment then you would save 10 per cent,” he said.
“But BEC’s profit margin on their electricity is less than 10 per cent. So with this campaign, BEC will be losing money, rather than making it.”
Mr. Neymour said all he wants is for the chairman to come clean with the Bahamian people and tell them the truth.
