70,403,315, Divided by 314 averages works out to a hefty take home package of $223,000:00 for each employee. For most of those accepting the VSEP this sum of money will be the largest sum to come through their hands in their lifetime.

All BPL employees accepting the VSEP's should use their funds wisely and invest in financial products with long term yields eg: Stocks, Bonds ,Mutual funds and CD's ...Seek financial advise form reputable firms. Resist the urge to splurge of shopping trips to florida, gambling, and beware of friends who appear suddenly out of no where,because "a fool and his money are soon parted" Proverbs 21-20 .

So now each of our electric bills for the thirty years or more will have to include a surcharge to ppay for the VSPs and pensions of this overstaffed government owned corporation. Multiply this situation by every other government owned entity, Multiply this this many times over to cover the unfunded pensions and we can expect a large and continuing cost of living rise in this country. This may snowball if the wealthy segments of society get fed up with power cuts, violent crime, and blame thrown by political operatives onto particular ethnic groups. An economic death spiral.

That payout seems excessive. Why do we the consumer always have to get shafted with this shit! ALWAYS, EVERYTHING that happens with that nanny up institution always involves us paying more and more and getting worse and worse service!

It feels as though BPL/BEC is nothing but a big loom.
How can my light bill be $56kwh then $245 fuel surcharge?
Yet we can afford this nonsense?

THIS MAKES NO SENSE!!!!! The Bahamas needs a Government.
How in the name of all that is good can this exercise " improve BPL’s financial viability by making it leaner and more competitive." Is Bannister of sound mind?

This is a direct result of those poor union contracts previous governments entered into. I am glad at least this gov is making an effort to clean house. Now all new hires will have to pay into their pension plans and the gravy train should be over. bitter pill now but sweetness later

Hope so!

I hope you are right, however i have not heard about the new hires paying in to the pension. Is this Correct?

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.

So right, but we as a people keep swallowing it hook, line and sinker. In other words, there is method in their madness. It's all part of the 'hopes for re-election scheme'. I, for one, am sick and tired of being forced to being a part of it. It's unbelievable.

This settlement amount seems ludicrous, crazy, insane and corrupt. It doesn't seem normal at all. How can any company give away 70 million dollars and think that's a smart business decision and will lead to profitability? Who is the lawyer that came up with this figure? How much are they being paid (probably 5 million). This deal smells funny. It smells outright rotten. Another play out of BOB's playbook. When will the stupidity/thievery end??? And, as stated above, the majority of these people will just get rehired and pocket the chunk of change!!!! How does the Bahamas even still exist???

Why does customs lose 50% of its income? Because there is no integrity amongst the workers. Why? Because there is no integrity amongst the leaders of the country. The Bahamas exists but is on the point of imploding, thanks to this latest round of elected officials. Bunch of frickin kleptocrats.

If wid the 314 going plus 60 hired again workers out of 1,038 ..let go so it will not continue to balloon outta control to unmanageble proportions...to make it leaner an more competitive...sooooooooo dis compaany been running roughly wid 1 outta 4 employees not needed.........dont dey have a Human Resources Department ...Training.....Planning....Administration.....who assessed the needs of the various departments and needs...????.?
..........FOR $70,000,000 OF THE TAXPAYERS MONEY.....HOW COME NOONE CHARGED IN COURT FOR GROSS INCOMPETAMCE....?overstaffong by hundreds.....WHAT WAS DA BOARD OF DIRECTORS DOING ALL DESE YEARS....?.....how come all pore taxpayer money to prop up dese employed all dese years.....an even more money to pays dem off....while the pore hav to pays fer dis.......ANODDA EXAMPLE DAT THE RICH PEOPLE DONT KNOW DAT MONEY DONT GROW ON TREE.....WHICHIN DA PORE DONE KNOW AS DEY GOES TO SLEEP EARLY CAUSE DA LECTRICITY DONE CUT OFF....,move round da house wid candle....in saucer so da wax aint driping over!!!