Former Cabinet Minister Bradley Roberts yesterday warned that  the public  has  to pay the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s pension deficit which grew from six million dollars to $110 million. 

Mr. Roberts also revealed some troubling truths about the country’s oldest phone company as he questioned why the government has not tabled last’s years performance report from Cable and Wireless. 

He said, “for the first time in 112 years, Information Services (916) is answered outside the Country in Jamaica.”

He added, “ there is no commitment to inject capital into BTC, as it is relegated to competing with these Hurricane ravaged countries for funding. Fiber To The Home (FTTH) has been deployed in only Eastern New Providence due to funding challenges. In addition to low staff morale, little to no investment in training, government dividends have all but evaporated.”

In a statement issued yesterday, Mr. Roberts said that he wants to know whether or not the current administration received the report and if it was tabled in parliament. 

He also wanted to know if the government is aware of the hundreds of jobs lost within the company, the outsourcing of 916 to Jamaica, the outsourcing of telephone directories to a Non- Bahamian company, plans to sell the JFK Building and Sell the property at Soldier Road to a Cemetery Company. 

Mr. Roberts said, “the foreign owners took billions in profits and market value, gutted the organization, displaced Bahamians and saddled the Bahamian taxpayer with a $110 million pension bill, leaving BTC as a ‘shell’.”

He describes this as “the shameful legacy of Hubert Ingraham and the FNM.”

He added, “the privatization policy was an abject failure for Bahamians. Bahamian ownership could have done a much better job and they would not have bankrupted BTC in six months as Ingraham warned.”

Mr. Roberts also urged the public to pay close attention to the government’s handling of Bahamas Power and Light (BPL).