The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Bahamas Power and Light CEO Whitney Heastie has rejected the Davis administration’s rationale for wiping out electricity bills for Grand Cay and Moore’s Island residents, saying the decision “makes no sense” and contradicts how relief was handled in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

His comments came after the electricity bills for residents of Grand Cay and Moore’s Island were zeroed days after Prime Minister Philip Davis visited the area and promised relief.

Some residents reported that their debts as high as $13,500 had been reduced to zero.

The government attributed the decision to disruptions following Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic, saying normal billing and collection operations were disrupted while residents faced hardship, limited banking access, and restrictions on travel and business activity.

It also said it had been advised that, under the former administration, residents were told they would not be required to pay their bills, but balances continued to accumulate in the system.

Mr Heastie, who led BPL before resigning in 2022, rejected that account, saying the board never instructed that residents would not have to pay.

He said the approach was to give customers some relief by postponing arrears while requiring them to remain current on new bills.

“The way that would have worked was they needed to keep current and then work on the arrears and pay the arrears off, and I don't honestly remember whether or not it was 90 days, 120 days, or come into the office and work out a payment plan, but you stay current with your current bill and then you work your arrears off,” he said.

Mr Heastie said the debt issue should have been resolved much earlier in the government’s term rather than now and questioned “why now?”

Former Works Minister Desmond Bannister backed Mr Heastie’s account, saying only he or the prime minister at the time could have authorised residents not to pay their bills but no such directive was given.

Mr Heastie also questioned why similar relief was not extended to other communities devastated by Dorian, including mainland Abaco and East Grand Bahama.

“If you want to forgive those, why are you picking on those individuals there?” he said. “Why not pick on the mainland of Abaco, which really got shapped. We had to rebuild the entire distribution and transmission network in northern Abaco. Why not pick on those individuals and forgive all of them?”

“I would have envisioned that the government would have stepped in on behalf of the residents of East Grand Bahama and done something similar as they did for the cays. I mean, that’s the first thing. The second thing for me is why now.”

The government vaguely said it decided to absorb eligible balances through an offsetting arrangement with BPL.

Mr Heastie said: “Nothing in life is free, so how does BPL, who was barely breaking even at the time that I left, right now pay for all of this?”

The episode has raised questions about vote buying, with some invoking provisions under the Parliamentary Elections Act that prohibit inducements intended to influence voters.

Mr Bannister called this election “the worst” he has ever seen in terms of handouts aimed at influencing voters.

“You see on Facebook and on the social media, you see politicians trying to outdo each other with what they could give out,” he said.

“What that means is that the politicians and the Bahamians and the voters don't realise that that cheapens their vote, and it causes some serious challenges with respect to public policy.”