The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian security company says it has only resumed guarding New Providence’s landfill after it was hired by the Government, not the facility’s private sector manager.

Andrew Johnson, Elite Security’s proprietor, revealed that being contracted by the Christie administration was “the only way” his firm would have returned to the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway site.

Disclosing that Elite had provided security services on behalf of the landfill’s manager, Renew Bahamas, for seven to eight months, Mr Johnson said the company withdrew after experiencing “things that didn’t sit well with me”.

Declining to go into detail, he confirmed that the business was among those owed outstanding payments by Renew Bahamas.

“We’re back there [the landfill] until the end of the month,” Mr Johnson replied, when contacted by Tribune Business. “We were contracted by the Government for that month period.”

Elite was hired, and called back to the landfill, by the Christie administration on April 5 after a series of recurring fires at the facility created environmental and health issues for surrounding communities.

“That’s the only way I would have gone back,” Mr Johnson told Tribune Business. “I’d been doing work there for approximately seven to eight months prior to me removing my services, for want of a better word.

“Things happened that caused me to remove my services. I saw various things that didn’t go well with me, and I decided to move on.”

Tribune Business contacted Mr Johnson and Elite after being told they may have “interesting things” to say regarding the New Providence landfill and its security.

In response to this newspaper’s questions, Mr Johnson also confirmed: “There is an outstanding [payment] that I’m trying to get” from Renew Bahamas.

“I’m right in the middle of it. I’m just a guinea pig,” he added. “The problem is; you take them to court, that’s another battle. I’m hoping some miracle happens and they [Renew] get their act together. It’s not a small thing for me.”

Mr Johnson says Elite has re-deployed significant resources to safeguard the New Providence landfill, including a patrol vehicle and 25 security officers. They are divided into two daily shifts of 10 officers each, plus five in reserve.

Mr Johnson’s remarks raise numerous questions about the problems plaguing the New Providence landfill, and the management contract that the Government granted to Renew Bahamas.

For starters, the sequence of events he describes - Elite’s departure and subsequent re-hiring - raises the issue of whether the New Providence landfill has been without adequate protection and security for some periods.

That, in turn, creates questions as to whether an absence of security was at least partially responsible for some of the recent fires, many of which Renew Bahamas has blamed on arsonists.

Elite’s re-hiring also suggests that the Government is at least partially subsidising Renew Bahamas and the landfill’s operational costs via the Bahamian taxpayer.

If so, this would defeat the purpose behind the landfill’s privatisation, and the outsourcing of its management to Renew Bahamas.

And a related question is whether the Bahamian people are realising all the purported savings that were supposed to flow from the landfill deal. Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment and housing, has pegged these at $6 million per annum.

Mr Johnson’s comments also provide fresh insight into Renew Bahamas’ revelations last week that it is seeking to re-negotiate its five-year landfill management contract with the Government, after incurring “substantial” losses running into millions of dollars.

Gerhard Beukes, the company’s president and chief executive, said its original business model was no longer viable after it encountered numerous issues during its first two years that were not uncovered during due diligence.

Renew Bahamas had looked to its Materials Recycling Facility to finance everything that is required to remediate and upgrade the landfill, but it appears the income streams being generated are insufficient.

The situation was exposed by the Free National Movement (FNM), which released an e-mail sent by Renew Bahamas to another vendor, James McPhee, of EJ’s Trucking and Heavy Duty Equipment.

It revealed that the landfill manager was unable to pay EJ’s Trucking or any other vendor ‘in full’ until it was able to re-negotiate financial terms with the Government.

Mr Johnson’s comments in relation to Elite confirm that EJ’s Trucking is far from alone. At least one other company, speaking to Tribune Business on condition of anonymity, has confirmed it is also owed money by Renew Bahamas.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader told Tribune Business that the latest developments provide the Christie administration with “a golden opportunity no to renew with Renew”.

Branville McCartney also branded Mr Beukes’s comments about the impact of numerous “unknowns” on Renew Bahamas’ business model as “a cop out”, and questioned whether the company was able to deliver on its obligations to the country.

The DNA leader said he had been informed of several trucking, haulage and heavy equipment vendors who had withdrawn from the landfill because of non-payment, and again urged the Government to disclose the contract with Renew Bahamas.

“We don’t know what the deal really is,” he told Tribune Business. “That’s something we’ve been asking for some time; what their [Renew Bahamas] responsibilities really are.”

Mr McCartney said the landfill manager could point to progress if its obligations related solely to recycling, but not if they also included remediation of the 100-acre site.

Asked what Bahamians could glean from Renew Bahamas’ efforts to re-negotiate its contract, the DNA leader added: “It tells us only that something has gone amiss, something has gone awry, and tells us that a lot of the complaints we’ve received may have some credence to them.

“A lot of complaints have come from security companies, heavy equipment operators, saying they’ve not been paid.

“I can only speculate as to what is going on there financially, but it’s incumbent on the Government to tell the people what the deal was. If the Government is paying them, what are they paying them?’

Mr McCartney has a personal interest in what happens at the landfill, given that his home is often in the direct path of smoke/fumes from its fires. His wife’s Meridian School has also been forced into frequent closures by the blazes.

His Halsbury Chambers law firm is also the registered office for one of Stellar Energy’s entities, the waste-to-energy group which continues to have its own designs on the landfill.

Mr McCartney reiterated his belief that the New Providence landfill must ultimately house a waste-to-energy conversion facility, arguing that this was the best way to eventually eradicate fires.

“It must be remediated,” Mr McCartney told Tribune Business. “We must do things to cut out the fires and use that facility for waste-to-energy, no ‘if’s’, ‘and’s’ and ‘but’s’ about it. There have been a number of proposals put in that won’t cost the Bahamian people money.”

As for Renew Bahamas’ assertion that it was unable to uncover numerous factors vital to developing a sustainable business plan during due diligence, the DNA leader added: “That’s a cop out, I think, on his part and the company’s part.

“If you are going to manage a dump site, you ought to have done your studies and assessments prior to engaging with the Government to take over the dump site.

“Saying he [Mr Beukes] doesn’t know is not sufficient. Let me ask him: Does he now know, and what does he now know, and knowing now, is he in position to remediate the problem?” Mr McCartney asked.

“If there’s any type of re-negotiation, this may be an opportunity for the Government not to renew Renew.”

The five-year contract with Renew Bahamas gives the Government a percentage of the recycling revenues based on a ‘sliding scale’.

Renew Bahamas keeps 95 per cent of the revenues when the annual top-line is $5-$6 million, and the Government’s share increases in 5 per cent increments as certain benchmarks are hit, with the cap standing at 50 per cent when $12-$14 million is reached.

Renew Bahamas has invested $4 million in its materials recycling facility, and an equal amount in civil works and other upgrades at the New Providence landfill.

The contract also transferred the responsibility for remediation/mining and fire prevention and fighting to Renew Bahamas.