By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMAS Power and Light (BPL) needs to fill 50-60 key positions vacated during its voluntary separation exercise, its chief executive has confirmed to Tribune Business.
The VSEP exercise opened to all employees of BPL on May 18 and closed on June 8. Of BLP's 1,038 employees, 314 applications were received. The VSEP exercise will result in more than $70m being paid out over time.
BPL chief executive Whitney Heastie told Tribune Business: "Certainly some of the folks that left would have been crucial and will have to be replaced. What we did was instead of letting go of those individuals who are critical to the day-to-day operations, we let them them stay on with us, while we determine how we can best work having lost someone of that calibre. That process is still going on. There are some departments that would have lost the entire group, such as the IT department where there is only one person left. Those expertise may be readily available but to find someone with 25 years of transmission and distribution experience is going to be extremely difficult," Mr Heastie explained.
The dates when employees are slated to voluntarily leave BPL have been spread out over two years. Mr Heastie suggested BPL would first look in house to fill its critical roles.
"We are evaluating individuals still in the organisation on their skills, competencies and ability to grow into the roles. If we feel they have the basic skills, competency and capacity to fill the role then we will fill the gap by providing the additional training and development needed to assume the role overtime. It's an evaluation process for those critical positions where you just can't find the skill sets in the local community. In areas of IT for instance, a database management, or a network administrator, those positions can be filled quickly filled without any hassle. Depending on where the position is in the company, we're deciding on how we go about it and resolve the shortfall we may have," said Mr Heastie.
He added: "We initially did an assessment of the critical positions and looked at what positions need to be refilled and the number worked out to between 50-60 positions. We asked every department leader to double check and ensure over the next six months that the number they provided is still needed. We are trying to determine whether what we budgeted as the potential net gain is going to be there after all this is said and done."
The utility's chairman Darnell Osborne had previously stated the VSEP exercise would save BPL between $1-$2 million per month, or $12-$24 million per year.
Comments
DDK 5 years, 8 months ago
"The VSEP exercise will result in more than $70m being paid out over time."
"(BPL) needs to fill 50-60 key positions vacated during its voluntary separation exercise, its chief executive has confirmed to Tribune Business." "The utility's chairman Darnell Osborne had previously stated the VSEP exercise would save BPL between $1-$2 million per month, or $12-$24 million per year."
THIS WHOLE EXERCISE MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!! WHAT AN AWESOME STATEGY!
How much do we pay these chair people? Can anyone apply?
About those marbles Mudda, they truly seem to have been scrambled on this one.
sheeprunner12 5 years, 8 months ago
Jesus!!!!!! ......... was it not overstaffed?????? ........ Retrain and redeploy!!!!!!!!
Bahamianbychoice 5 years, 8 months ago
This sounds like smoke & mirrors to me....an opportunity for the CEO to get his people in place....then the deals will be done...my guess next will be "outsourcing to consultants". Follow the money....
hallmark 5 years, 8 months ago
So if they were crucial and have to be replaced, why were they allowed to leave? Were they near retirement age or something?
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 8 months ago
"but to find someone with 25 years of transmission and distribution experience is going to be extremely difficult," Mr Heastie explained"
Im lost, if they were in charge of selecting who could go vs who couldn't, and they knew how hard it would be to find a replacement, why let the person go?
BONEFISH 5 years, 8 months ago
I don't get it. Those persons were key to the corporation's operations. They could have staggered their leaving until they had suitable replacements. I would hope this VSEP was better manged by their human resources department.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 8 months ago
Hubert Ingraham first introduced these large scale Voluntary Separation Packages (VSEPS) when Batelco (now BTC) had to be downsized to enable its privatization. In fact the initial $55 million dollars ($55,000,000) in VSEPS paid by Batelco was squandered because of serious delays in its privatization process. During the delays the head count of Batelco was allowed to balloon again because of political cronyism in the granting of jobs by our corrupt politicians to their family members, constituents and friends. Even some who benefited from the initial VSEPS were re-employed by Batelco. This necessitated another round of VSEPS by Batelco costing an additional $60 million dollars ($60,000,000) in order to persuade Cable & Wireless to acquire a controlling stake in Batelco, which was subsequently renamed BTC. Since then, these VSEPS have been used at other government corporations, like Bahamasair and BEC as it was named back then. In each case very generous packages in aggregate totaling millions of dollars were paid and in each case, within a few years, the head counts of these corporations were once again bloated as a result of our corrupt politicians padding the payrolls with 'generous' jobs to their family members, constituents and friends. Now we have accepted VSEPS for BPL totaling $70 million dollars ($70,000,000) and planned VSEPS for the Water & Sewerage Corp. and no doubt others to come. What the public needs to understand is that these planned VSEPS by our government subsidized corporations have become nothing more than a mechanism for our corrupt politicians to periodically shower (unjustly enrich) their family members, cronies and constituents with our hard earned tax dollars. The reduced head count is always allowed to balloon again and frequently beneficiaries of the VSEPS are re-hired because they possess knowledge or skills the government corporation finds it cannot do without. And the cycle of VSEPS now gets repeated every 5 years or so at most. The whole concept of VSEPS has become a very costly fraud perpetrated against our country's taxpayers by our corrupt politicians. It's absolutely absurd and repulsive that the average per capita cost of the BPL voluntary separation package is $224,000....primarily paid to family members, cronies and supportive constituents of our corrupt politicians.
Sickened 5 years, 8 months ago
These separation packages are sure making it look attractive to work for government. All I need to do is sit at my desk for a few hours a day and do the bare minimum for 20 years and not only do I get a salary, I also don't have to contribute to my pension, I get a gratuity when I leave as well as a separation package! PLUS they will probably hire me as a consultant after and pay me double my normal salary. I must be insane for working in the real world. Now if I can only remember who my MP is... I need a gubment job!
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