The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday said union demands have “priced the government out of the business” of supplying quality utility services throughout The Bahamas.

Mr Miller, chairman of the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) and former executive chairman of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), said the government is unable to give quality utility service due to the “outrageous demands placed on the back of the government” by unions attached to public corporations.

Mr Miller, who is often considered an anti-unionist politician, insisted that the “get all we can” mindset of unions has developed a culture in which quality service isn’t valued; instead workers are only focused on “pinching the government when they can for more money”.

He said the government could spend less reselling supplies bought from auxiliary sources to consumers, as is the cases throughout the Family Islands.

Mr Miller’s comments came as residents in Eleuthera continue to express their frustration over the quality of water service on that island.

Residents have alleged that they were now subjected to five-hour intervals of water supplies.

Disruption to the water supply has been a recurring problem for much of the past year in Eleuthera.

General Electric (GE), the private company that provides the island with running water, has reported a number of issues with its supply.

Earlier this month, Central Eleuthera MP Damian Gomez indicated that the island’s water plant had not been maintained and this has affected the supply levels of the plant.

Responding to the concern over issues in Eleuthera, Mr Miller said he had communicated with representatives from GE, and had received confirmation that the company had purchased several “important components” that would aid in its efforts to improve water supplies on that island.

When asked why the government wasn’t moving to gain control of supplying the island with water instead of leaving it up to GE, Mr Miller scoffed and suggested that the government couldn’t offer a supply at that price due to overhead expenses.

“At the end of the day, they aren’t the best, but we have no other option in this case. GE provides water at a rate that is affordable. The government can’t do that,” he said. “We don’t want to go this route, but we have to. It is cheaper to buy water being supplied by an independent company because they aren’t burdened by the foolishness that comes with these unions.

“A lot of people are going to bash me for saying this, but it has to be said. When the government owns and manages these utility companies we have to spend more money paying workers who are demanding the world for poor service. When we have given into these demands, it’s hard to find the money to improve services.

“It’s truly sad that we have to rely on foreigners to produce such a valuable resource, but look at the facts, when the government owned and operated these utilities, there was a lot of inefficiency - they went into disarray. This was the case because we had the unions on our backs calling for bonuses, higher overtime wages, higher wages in general, more overtime - all sorts of things. But when we would ask them something about the service, they’d go quiet and deaf.”

Successive governments have worked to solve the cash-strapped nature of a few of the country’s public utility providers over the last decade.

A majority stake in BTC - 51 per cent - was sold to Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) in 2011 under the previous Ingraham administration.

Earlier this year, American company PowerSecure was contracted to manage BEC - resulting in the reorganisation of the corporation under the operations of the new Bahamas Power & Light Company Ltd (BPL).

In both instances, the unions attached took issue with the incoming management teams over job security and severance packages.

“Look at the dynamics of those agreements, unions were up in arms over conditions. But what was on the bottom-line, those companies were not efficient,” Mr Miller said.

The Tall Pines MP said while the sale of BTC and the management agreement for BEC hasn’t resulted in improved service, as in the case with the service agreement with WSC, the cost efficiency for the companies has improved.

“The legacy debt at WSC is now at $40m, it’s hard to get rid of that with the current inefficiency going on within the company. We have to do more to make these corporations efficient. We can’t sustain operations where people just want to get paid for a poor work ethic.”

He added: “We apologise for the issue in Eleuthera but we are working with the company there to resolve the issue there. GE has given us their word that they are working to resolve the matter.”