BEC Chairman Leslie Miller
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE weekend’s blackout will cost taxpayers half a million dollars, according to Bahamas Electricity Chairman Leslie Miller who added that the “catastrophic” incident could have easily been prevented if employees had done their job.
Mr Miller said this figure encompasses the money the corporation will spend to repair the damaged equipment and the money BEC has lost because it was not supplying power to consumers.
A “fire in the trenches” at the Blue Hills Power Station caused the island-wide outage on Friday, which forced the company to conduct load-shedding activities throughout New Providence over the weekend. Some residents reported that they were without power for up to 36 consecutive hours.
Guests at the One & Only Ocean Club on Paradise Island had no electricity supply until it was fully restored around 3pm yesterday.
Mr Miller said a fire erupted after an “overloaded wire” came into contract with oil that had dripped into the trenches at the Blue Hills Power Station.
“One of the main wires running to the seven engines at Blue Hills, one of those overheated,” he yesterday. “And there was oil in the trench that should not have been there. We’ve been begging them to clean out the trenches where they have the wires and we had a fire there before and yet they never rectified the situation. So when that one wire got overloaded, because oil was there, it sparked and blew up all the wires. The preventative maintenance wasn’t done and the lack of proper maintenance is what’s killing BEC.”
He blamed the problem on the people – the management and staff – who work at the Blue Hills Power Station.
However, he said, he doubts any one will be held responsible for the dereliction of duty because of union interference.
“The government ain’t in charge of BEC, the union in charge,” he said.
BEC officials asked businesses to switch to generators after the initial power cut so the company could supply power to residential areas through its load-shedding activities.
Mr Miller, however, said no one should expect to be reimbursed.
“The government can’t reimburse anybody. Don’t even go there because BEC ain’t got no money to reimburse anybody with.”
Mr Miller said he communicated with a frustrated Deputy Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis concerning the matter over the weekend. Mr Davis is the minister responsible for BEC.
“The minister told me ... that he (is) tired and wants it fixed,” he said. “He said ‘fix it.’ He said he tired and don’t want to hear about it no more.
“I myself, I apologise but I’m sick and tired of apologising. We need to get it right and we need to start holding those responsible accountable. Enough pressure is never put on anybody. It’s always a buddy-buddy system here.”
Comments
asiseeit 9 years, 1 month ago
I wonder how many other fires where started due to this. Boungying Every Customer is correct!
UserOne 9 years, 1 month ago
This man always blaming the employees. You in charge, fix the problem or step down. As for BEC not having any money, how much money do you owe BEC?
jackbnimble 9 years, 1 month ago
Fa real. He ALWAYS gat a story. Everyone is to blame 'cept me.
Romrok 9 years, 1 month ago
Sell BEC out right. Government would do better without public corps to use to for votes. Don't say anything about national security, that crap is old, we ain't the USA. Private companies run businesses to make money, not shutdown a little place like us.
Remember folks, New Zealand government doesn't own these companies, they get elected by working for the people to improve the country, not by using the public purse to bribe people to their side.
duppyVAT 9 years, 1 month ago
What ever happened to SAFETY FIRST on the job in these electrical plants?????????? This type of negligence is really over the top. Is there any kind of oversight by BEC management???????
How can OIL be leaking into live wire trenches and no one see that over a period of time??????
jusscoolin 9 years, 1 month ago
I can tell u duppy pure Laziness!
TalRussell 9 years, 1 month ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
NeedMoreCoffee 9 years, 1 month ago
What great leadership! My people didn't do their job. If your people mess up, don't publically display that. Ultimately, it's the leadership's error and their responsibility to prevent and correct them. He points at apathy, but no wonder if this is the company culture.
ohdrap4 9 years, 1 month ago
Why is the cost being put on taxpayers. If the chairman pays his light bill in full, it will cover a great portion of the 500,000.
John 9 years, 1 month ago
Dump on fire, BEC current off, BAMSI scandal, the headliner for carnival end up being who was rejected and the Reynard wells scandal, no wonder they wants the lights not on
jackbnimble 9 years, 1 month ago
Love your analogy. The lights been off on this Government long time.
EnoughIsEnough 9 years, 1 month ago
i feel that many of you are missing the point. with the unions as strong as they are, and completely unrealistic in their demands, he simply cannot fire the people who need firing. the pressure needs to be put onto the unions from the bahamian public - it's one thing to defend employees who are wrongfully terminated but this sort of negligence needs to be address right away. i for one am tired of the unions continuing to fight to keep incompetent, dishonest and lazy people in their jobs. there are many people out there who need work - let's give them a chance. we need to ultimately dissolve the unions in this contract so that we can hire people who want to work and let the lazy and the dishonest go. you criticize Miller - and trust me, i'm tired of seeing his face and Davis' face always linked to everything that goes wrong in this country - but I'd like to hear what you would all do if you had Miller's job. how would you deal with the unions?
DonAnthony 9 years, 1 month ago
Very simple. Legislation should be passed in parliament designating certain civil servants as vital to national security ( BEC and the police force) making it illegal to unionize. Then immediately disband the unions, and reduce salaries to reasonable levels and terminate the incompetents.
TalRussell 9 years, 1 month ago
Comrade DonAnthony by dramatically lowering government workers wages and benefits, you must know it will also lower non-government workers wages to below the middle class wage earners levels. BEC have never provided the public with the exact wages of their average worker. Tell the public exactly what percentage of the billion dollars they owe can be directly traced to overtime wages? How many white looking people have you ever seen on a picket line? Truth is black people are union members, not whites but they continue to earn higher wagers and benefits, all because of the indirect higher wage benefits that can be earned by union members.
DonAnthony 9 years, 1 month ago
Tal I simply said reduce salaries to a reasonable level, not hard to figure out, just look at comparable wages at similar utilities. Hard to argue with that. As for the color of workers that has no bearing for me, I do not judge people by the color of their skin and see no reason why you introduced race. That has no bearing on running a corporation profitably. Finally, we all would like higher wages, we simply can not as a county afford a civil service that consumes 60 % of recurrent expenditure. It is untenable and unfair to taxpayers. We need to make sound and painful economic decisions before they are soon forced upon us by the IMF. The world have changed, we have to or will be made to against our will. Note for the first time ever Barbados fired 3000 civil servants last year, under pressure from the IMF. We will be there soon without changes.
Alltoomuch 9 years, 1 month ago
Man you really are crazy huh!!
positiveinput 9 years, 1 month ago
What a bold statement to make, "The Government can't reimburse anybody. Don't even go there because B.E.C. aint got no money to reimburse anybody with". How could you be so bold. What if the consumers reversed that statement after using the electricity and its time to pay. Mr. Miller clearly states that it is workers negligence that cost the blackout, yet now with the power back on, to the regular customers, freezers and fridge compressors had to run longer to bring the temperature back to normal working range. Those with electric pumps must run longer now to initially full there water tanks. All of these things require more electricity to be used which would reflect in our bills. This power usage is not the consumers fault, so why cant the consumer be credited a percentage on next billing period? If B.E.C. doesn't have no money that's B.E.C.'s managing problem because most of us struggle to pay our bill. However we cannot pay the bill arise from workers laziness. That's stealing by means of employment - B.E.C.
TalRussell 9 years, 1 month ago
Comrade Positiveinput, BEC can not even pay Shell for the fuel it used up a long time ago. "Pot cake Leslie has acknowledged that Atlantis PAYS their 1 million dollar light bill promptly each and every month and that without Atlantis's cash flow, that BEC could not meet its payroll. Yet, Atlantis had to close down their Paradise Island Casino operation, when their lights went out.
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