What did the board at BPL know about the Contract to its Member and what role did they play to issue it? And how could Minnis claim he is fighting corruption when it is happening right under his nose at BPL?
NASSAU| Bahamas Press is following a serious conflict at the Bahamas Power and Light operation as new rental generation equipment is about to come online.
And our contention comes from some new appointments that have been made to the BPL Board.
Now, little is known about BPL Board. In fact, we know a team has been asked to stay on and deal with all these new changes at BPL, but the Bahamas Government, although announced by Minister Desmond Bannister, has not published the names of the members in the Official Gazette.
And while persons await the published names on the board, we at BP want to quickly highlight – just for today – BPL board member Robyn Lee Ogilvie.
Back on November 4th BP published some eight questions to BPL Board and its political leadership demanding they tell us some things still left unanswered by the power supply company.
In that report, which centered on management decisions, we posted this question: Who is Robyn Lee Ogilvie? Is she the newest appointed member on the Board of BPL? When was she appointed? What asset is she now to the BPL BOARD? This was question #5 on our list. And today we ga answer some since the board has not responded.
Ogilvie is Bahamian, yes, and is the owner of Steel Construction Limited where she sits as a professional engineer.
But the question that must be answered by the Cabinet of the Bahamas and the BPL Board is: why would they both approve the appointment of Ms Robyn Lee Ogilvie when they know her company does construction work for BPL Clifton Pier Power Station? And she is right now doing multiple construction works at the Pier!. Look how Minnis does run the Bahamas.
Ogilvie’s steel company, without mentioning any disclosures to the public, has been contracted by BPL to do all the steelwork at the Clifton plant. We must all ask ourselves why though? Why would a government appoint a vendor to the BPL Board, especially one who is now presently engaged in construction work at the Clifton Pier Power Station, and not see her appointment as a conflict?
Ms Ogilvie’s inside position on the board allows her to set the price on construction work at BPL. Isn’t that incredible?! We wonder if the Government is aware of this fact?!
So far her company has been awarded all the steelwork construction for the Watsilia generators at Clifton.
And if that was not enough, board member Ogilvie’s company has been given all the concrete work at BPL’s Clifton Pier.
And if that is not enough, her company has also been awarded all the copper grounding work at BPL’s power station – which we understand was abandoned by Brent’s company after too much shoddy work. Ya mean Brent had that too?
The question we have for the Board and The Cabinet of the Bahamas is this: How could the BPL Board in good conscience, upon setting the price for the work at the Clifton station, turn around and award that work to a sitting board member who is also inside of the room where the price is being set? This is the heart of what we all describe as CORRUPTION, isn’t it?! This is a conflict that borders on a criminal act!
Could this be why Bahamians are paying more on their BPL bill? Could this be why we need to borrow millions more for BPL so a board member could enrich herself with work at the Clifton Station?
And why do our American friends, who watched Powersecure get sacked by this present government, stand so quiet when such serious evidence of corruption boils up and blows up at BPL, right in the face of the public?! Where ya think Transparency International and the organization for Responsible Governance are now? Well, what in da hell this?
We ga report and let yinner decide the conversation just like the ‘wicket’ looking National Christmas Tree!
