State Minister for Finance Zhivargo Laing yesterday launched a scathing attack on Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts, who earlier this week, claimed that Mr. Laing and BTC Chairman Julian Francis combined have "spelt disaster for the once vibrant phone company."
On Monday, the government tabled BTC’s annual report for 2008 in the House of Assembly. The report revealed that in 2008, profits had dropped $21.7 million, down from the 2007 profit of $42.8 million.
BTC Acting President and CEO Kirk Griffin noted in his CEO report that the company experienced a $3.5 million decline in revenues and an $18.7 million increase in operating expenses.
Mr. Roberts said the report indicates that every financial key performance indicator has gone south in the 18 months after the PLP left office.
In a no holds barred interview on Love 97’s talk show, Issues of the Day with host Algernon Allen, Minister Laing responded to stinging criticisms leveled by Mr. Roberts, a former utilities minister, who was once responsible for BTC.
"I have to say that I regard it as particularly offensive to have someone whom I regard as the most disastrous minister responsible for corporations in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas in the history of The Bahamas refer to us being a disaster," he said.
"There is no period in the history of The Bahamas, I believe, when a single minister was more interfering in the affairs of those corporations and could take credit for the disasters of that corporation than Bradley Roberts."
In an attempt to put things in perspective, Minister Laing noted that despite the tough economy, BTC has still managed to turn a profit.
"Here is a company, which in the most difficult economic period since the Great Depression, is still making a profit of $20 plus million even after all of the economic fallout that we know we have had. Its profitability shrank from year to year from [$42.8 million to $21.1 million], [the company was] reasonably profitable nonetheless," he said.
"This is in comparison to many companies . . . whose situation and circumstances have drastically changed, where for instance in a period of time, when of all the major financial institutions on the globe, almost five of them have gone out of business – just collapsed. They are no longer around, like Lehman Brothers. We’ve seen their stories, disastrous. No such thing has had to happen to BTC."
Mr. Roberts also noted that in 2008, BTC declared a $25 million dividend to the government.
"It has been brought to my attention that so far for 2009, [Prime Minister] Hubert Ingraham has taken $80 million in dividends from the BTC bank accounts," Mr. Roberts said in his press statement.
Minister Laing says there is nothing wrong with that.
"Mr. Roberts deems himself a successful businessman. Well, why do business people get into business and own companies? So that when it makes a profit, they declare for themselves a dividend, so that they can use that dividend to enrich themselves as they wish. The government of The Bahamas owns BTC. The profits of BTC belong to the people of The Bahamas through the government’s ownership," he said.
"If the government has a need of cash, why would the government not avail itself of declaring a dividend from a profitable institution and that dividend not jeopardize the company? I want Mr. Roberts to explain if his administration ever received any dividends from BTC. And ask him what happened in the last year of their administration before they were kicked out. We can’t be hypocritical on this front."
In a press statement sent out earlier this week, Mr. Roberts boasted that under the PLP Government, BTC introduced GSM and CDMA cellular technology, Blackberry, Cyberworld and a wide range of other services.
Mr. Laing said no one in his "right mind" truly believes that these initiatives just simply popped up. He said extensive planning went into those initiatives – planning that preceded the PLP assuming office in 2002, planning that took place under the FNM Government.
"When we came to office, the customers of BTC were complaining bitterly about the service, complaining about dropped calls, complaining about not being able to go to BTC and have proper customer service shown to them, almost as if somebody was doing them a favour. So, they would have had their issues. We were focused on trying to do something about that. Because, it’s one thing to have technology; it’s an entirely different thing to not have that technology work in the interest of the people you are serving," he said.
"The business people of this community had complained bitterly about the service, the extent to which foreign businesspersons would come here and be unable to get data service. So, while Mr. Roberts wants to take credit for things that clearly did not happen because of him, he must also acknowledge the mess he left in respect to the service delivered to the customers of BTC."
Mr. Roberts also claimed that the FNM has created a "police state" at BTC and has essentially "driven staff morale in the toilet."
"I’m not entirely certain what Mr. Roberts is commenting on in terms of staff morale at BTC because I wasn’t busy emailing instructions to BTC as he was. There is a chairman and a board and a CEO and president. So, I wasn’t busy sending them emails about who to hire and not to hire or what to do and not to do," he said.
"For example, there was a major initiative in terms of the next generation programme, a $55 million project, which he himself was sending instructions about to avoid a bid process, which the board took a decided decision against that it should go to bidding. I would not have done such a thing. So, I didn’t have that kind of interference in the affairs of BTC. I don’t believe in that nonsense. Nothing was sapping the staff morale at BTC and creating more political mischief at BTC than Mr. Roberts’ personal intervention in their affairs."
During the interview Mr. Laing said BTC’s privatization is moving ahead as scheduled. He said the government expects the exercise to be concluded soon.
While he would not reveal the amount of money BTC should be sold for, he said "We believe we have a sense of what BTC is valued and will take account of it when bids come in."
- Austin DWI - New York DWI