Minister of Works Desmond Bannister made serious  charges  against     fired board members of Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) yesterday. He claimed that they had  their personal expenses paid for on the company’s dime.

He said  “Chairman Mrs. Darnell Osbourne got a security system for her house and got BPL to pay for it. That type of thing is wrong. It cannot be condoned as a Member of Parliament as a Minister, I cannot condone that type of thing.”

He added, “Mrs. Osbourne would get someone to do her make up and gave the bill to BPL in hundreds of dollars, and in some instances, BPL has paid for it. BPL is going to have to account to me why they have paid to go to her house, and there  are many personal bills that she has submitted like that.

“I’ve authorized the CEO of BPL to provide it to media because you and the Bahamian people have to know this nonsense that has been going on,” said the Minister.

Mr. Bannister  accused  Mrs. Osbourne of  having an agenda. 

He said, “this occupation and preoccupation with Mr. Patrick Rollins, who is a qualified electrical engineer, Mr. Rollins was appointed Executive Director by me.

“That was a post that the chair constantly asked me to appoint her to, to such an extent that in December she and Mrs. Thompson provided me with proposals to pay her $300,000  to be the Executive Director.

“I still have that in writing. These are the personal things that I have to admit political interference with, because I told him what the salary would be for her and it wasn’t going to be anything close to that.”, he said.  

The Minister said he will not allow taxpayers’ money to be wasted under these circumstances. 

There has been a  war of words  between the Minister of Works and former the BPL board members.  

Last week, Minister Bannister made a brief  statement when  he said  the old board was  at loggerheads on virtually every critical issue. 

This, he said, became costly to the company, particularly as relationships deteriorated. 

Mr. Bannister made it clear at the end of a one-page release on the issue out of respect for BPL former board members, he has no intention of discussing their dismissal in any further detail, until yesterday. 

However,  a scathing letter was written by  the  former board members Darnell Osbourne, Nicola Thompson and Nick Dean giving their  side of the story. 

The trio claimed had the board been left to its devices without external interferences, the mechanisms in place to prevent gridlock would have been effective…and it was this interference, they say,  that undermined the board’s functionality, particularly the leadership of the chair.

A newly appointed  board chairman is  Dr. Donavan Moxey. 

Other members include James Moss, Debra Wood, Ferron Bethel and Viana Gardiner.