The Tribune

By SIMON

In its election Blueprint for Change in 2021, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) promised: “Within the first 100 days, we will cause a review of BPL operations to reduce cost of electricity, maintain a reliable supply, and enter into contractual arrangements which would put BPL on a solid financial footing, and most importantly, reduce the costs of living and doing business in The Bahamas.”

None of this happened in the first 100 days or even many hundreds of days after. The cost of electricity shot up dramatically, with some Bahamians seeing the highest bills they have ever paid in their lives.  Quite a number paid thousands in one year, enough to buy a second-hand car or van.

The end of the FNM’s fuel hedge made matters worse.  The cost of electricity made the cost of living significantly more expensive, affecting scores of businesses who passed the cascading costs on to customers.

Many bills doubled or near tripled. Some consumers dipped into savings to pay light bills, while others cancelled or scaled down holidays in order to keep the lights on.

The PLP also promised to “maintain a reliable supply.”  Across the country, especially in Eleuthera, Abaco, and parts of Andros, and other Family Islands, residents suffered from punishing blackouts in the last nearly five years.

Many businesses related to tourism suffered financial losses.  Some schools had to send children home.  Many people endured sweltering heat at home.

Now, the residents of New Providence are set to experience another long summer of long blackouts despite the promise to end these summer blues.  Many in western New Providence have already experienced cuts to supply that have lasted many miserable hours.

There are multiple outages every day on New Providence!  Many stages of the system seem beset by problems, resulting in unstable services. What is the response from BPL?  The power company’s lame response may be classified as articulate incompetence, which is rife throughout government.

“Articulate incompetence...relies on smoke and mirrors.... the ability to use polished vocabulary, charismatic communication, and professional buzzwords to describe plans or soothe concerns [ but is actually] a failure to follow through with meaningful action, operational efficiency, or results.”

Articulate incompetence is typically used in crisis management, employing linguistic gobbledygook and verbal gymnastics to avoid accountability and to hide behind a facade of competence.

Here is an example of the latest articulate incompetence and technical doublespeak deployed to mask BPL’s failures.

This journal on Tuesday reported: “…BPL yesterday blamed multiple New Providence outages on equipment faults, underground cable failures and soaring electricity demand caused by an early summer heat wave, while maintaining that major network upgrades remain on schedule ahead of hurricane season.”

Anthony Christie, BPL's chief operating officer, told The Tribune:  "New Providence has experienced a number of outages over the past several days.

“These outages have been caused by faults affecting substation equipment and underground cables in certain areas. Additionally, the ongoing heat wave has resulted in peak system loads, placing increased demand on the electrical network.”

Is BPL really shocked that we are having an early summer heat wave, especially given the reality of climate change?

Ripening mangoes are scornful on thousands of trees on New Providence.  Poinciana trees have started blooming early for years, likely because of climate change.  Yet, we should somehow believe that BPL and the government have been taken by surprise by the early summer heat?

The Tribune story of June 2, noted that “major network upgrades remain on schedule ahead of hurricane season.”  Newsflash for BPL: the official hurricane season began June 1.

Why weren’t these upgrades done well before the peak summer season?  According to this paper, Christie “added hat Bahamas Grid Company (BGC) is in the final stages of transmission and distribution upgrades for New Providence and remains on track to complete the work before the end of June.”

God bless Mr Christie.  Still, how many times have Bahamians heard such promises of deadlines that never materialize and that are like mirages caused by heatstroke and dehydration.

Given the abysmal and sinister failure of the government to give the Bahamian people honest and thorough communications on its so-called energy reform, it is best that Bahamians take with half a grain of salt what is promised by BPL and the Minister of Energy and Transport, JoBeth Colbey Davis.

At the end of April, The Tribune reported: “With a major energy deal unravelling and millions in financing under scrutiny, Energy and Transport Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis offered little clarity yesterday, declining to explain the collapse of a key New Providence grid management arrangement...

“Her response came after the government sought to steady confidence after the abrupt exit of Island Grid, led by US energy executive Eric Pike, from the project, which had been promoted as a cornerstone of energy reform but had now fallen apart less than two years into a 25-year agreement.

“In a statement issued on Wednesday, the government sought to frame the development as a transition rather than a breakdown, pointing to new leadership at Bahamas Grid Company.”

You guessed it! Just more articulate incompetence, which involves parsing of words, deflection, and lack of full transparency.  Rather than admitting failure and a breakdown, we are given the word “transition”.

It is akin to someone caught taking mangoes from someone’s tree without permission.  When caught the response is: “I’m in transition to becoming a better person.  As soon as I sell these mangoes, I’ll be an honest man, making my own money.”

In her 2025/2026 budget presentation in parliament, Minister Coleby-Davis stated: “As the National Energy Policy moves forward for official publication and implementation, we are positioning The Bahamas to pursue a more resilient, diversified, and sustainable energy future — grounded in transparency, inclusivity, and national ownership.”

How much more resilient and sustainable is the energy sector?  How much does the government continue to hide from the Bahamian people and perhaps international financial institutions?  What really happened with Pike Energy? 

Moreover, is BPL on a more “solid financial footing” as promised nearly five years ago, or is it in financially worse shape. Then there is this warning sounded by veteran business reporter Neil Hartnell:

“Bahamian taxpayers are owed half-a-billion dollars in outstanding loans by loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs), it has been revealed, with nine key government entities collectively plunging into ‘negative equity’ with debt liabilities exceeding their assets.”

The Fiscal Strategy Report [2026, which accompanied the Budget], also highlighted that the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), BPL’s parent or holding company, faces a similar - albeit less pronounced - predicament with liquid assets of around $300m exceeded by current liabilities slightly in excess of that figure.

Instead of articulate or weaponised incompetence and opaqueness, might Minister Coleby-Davis and the government offer answers on the bungling failure to realize meaningful energy reform.