By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Foreign consultants hired by Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) were last night put “on hold” amid union uproar over a project “critical” to ensuring Nassau residents have reliable power in 2019.

Dr Donovan Moxey, pictured, BPL’s newly-appointed chairman, last night confirmed that the Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) consultant hired to overhaul the Clifton Pier power plant’s spare parts inventory had been “put on the sidelines” following talks involving the utility’s management and union leaders.

He added that the need for other BWSC engineers and consultants, hired via a contract BPL signed “months and months ago”, was also being evaluated following Monday’s outburst by Paul Maynard, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union’s (BEWU) president.

The union chief slammed the engagement of BWSC to perform “work a Bahamian could do”, and he last night told Tribune Business he had reached “an agreement” with BPL’s chairman and chief executive, Whitney Heastie, that will result in the consultants “going back” home.

Dr Moxey, though, argued that their agreement was less than suggested by Mr Maynard, as he blamed “misunderstanding and miscommunication” - caused by the departure of a senior BPL executive during the recent voluntary separation (VSEP) downsizing - for the confusion sparked when BWSC personnel arrived at Clifton Pier on Monday.

He added that the spare parts inventory overhaul was a “time critical” project that needed to be completed quickly, as it was vital to upgrading BPL’s procurement strategies and identifying whether it needed to order extra equipment for the winter maintenance that will be performed on BPL’s generation engines at Clifton Pier.

Given the “time lags” between ordering parts and their arrival, Dr Moxey said it was essential for BPL to have everything it needed so it could “hit” the January maintenance schedule on target - otherwise the reliable supply of electricity to New Providence residents and businesses could be undermined in 2019. And BWSC were already three months’ late starting.

“Right now, the big issue is around the consultant who came in to deal with the outstanding stores issue at Clifton Pier,” the BPL chairman explained to Tribune Business. “We needed to do some clean-up and realignment on the stores and inventory at Clifton Pier power plant.

“There was an agreement signed with BWSC earlier this year, months and months ago, which involved other consultants and engineers coming in - not just for stores. The agreement was taken care of, and these gentlemen were supposed to start on June 1.

“There was a shift, and these gentlemen ended up coming in on Monday. We had a gentleman running Clifton Pier, Mr Davis, who is no longer there. He took the VSEP, and it ended up being a misunderstanding and miscommunication over when these people were supposed to arrive,” Dr Moxey continued.

“When he [Mr Davis] left, no one understood what was going on. The question, when these gentlemen showed up, was: What are they here to do? And the biggest question mark was the consultant on the stores alignment.”

While Dr Moxey blamed Mr Davis’s departure for the confusion caused by BWSC’s arrival, Mr Heastie seemed fully aware of their personnel’s presence and why they were here. He explained that Clifton Pier’s parts inventory needed to be properly catalogued so BPL knew what it had, and where to find it.

Following talks with Mr Heastie, Dr Moxey last night said he had decided to take up Mr Maynard’s assertion that Bahamians could perform the stores realignment themselves.

“What I said to Maynard was this,” he told Tribune Business. “Identify two individuals who can take on this particular responsibility; who they are and get a scope of understanding of the works required from the project engineer responsible. If they have issues there, go through the vendors you can recommend who are Bahamian that can provide additional assistance.

“It’s a short-term project that needs to be done. We will put the consultant on the sidelines and pull him back.” The BPL chairman said the state-owned utility will also “assess the need” for the other BWSC consultants and engineers, given the desire to “build capacity” among Bahamians - both BPL staff and vendors.

Some observers may view BPL’s move as akin to “the tail wagging the dog”, with the union effectively dictating to management and the Board, but Dr Moxey added: “Stores are not very technical, although they do require certain skill sets. If the union feels these are available, we are more than happy to use these skill sets [if they are up to] the quality we need.

“It’s important for us to make use of the operational knowledge and increase capacity in terms of the people working at BPL, so we can minimise going out and bringing in consultants.”

The BPL chairman pledged that all actions would comply with the utility’s procurement and other internal policies, and added of the inventory project: “This is critical to us from a timing perspective.

“It all ties into our procurement process. We’re in the process of realigning and updating procurement. Stores and inventory is a huge part of that. We need to understand what’s in it, and what we need for scheduled maintenance and lead times in ordering parts.

“If we know we’re running out of a particular part, and the maintenance window is coming due, we need to order that part. We need to get everything in line because procurement is tied to maintenance on the plant.”

Dr Moxey continued: “We’re in the process of aligning stores, getting everything in place now, so when maintenance hits in January we can have all the parts we need to do overhauls in place.

“This is why this is a critical process. It needs to be done in a certain time period so we understand the lead time for parts to be replaced, and get this done as quickly as possible.”

Mr Maynard last night confirmed he had reached “an agreement” with Dr Moxey “to solve this problem”. He declined to provide details until he spoke to the unions’ members, other than to say: “It means BWSC going back. It’s a good thing we’ve come to, and think we can work it out.”

Speaking earlier to Tribune Business, Mr Maynard said “humungous sums of money” had been paid to BWSC over a period spanning at least three decades, yet he argued that the contractor “never gave us the proper service”.

“The agreement was they were supposed to train our people,” he said. “Their part of the bargain was to teach the Bahamian, transfer knowledge to the Bahamian, and they never did. This has been going on since the 1990s. They’ve not done a fantastic job. This BWSC thing, they need to cut this off at the pass. They’ve not done anything for us or our country.”

Mr Maynard confirmed that he and Anthony Christie, head of the BPL managers’ union, met with Mr Heastie and Patrick Rollins, BPL’s executive director, over the issue yesterday afternoon.

“I told them the union ain’t going to stand for this,” he added. “He needs to consider moving them [BWSC] out of here. Get them out of here. He apologised, and said it was his fault for not communicating with the union at the time. But we can’t go down this road with BWSC.”

Dr Moxey, meanwhile, said the Board saw BPL’s two unions as key partners in moving the utility forward. “From day one we’ve had an open door policy with the unions, and will work through it with them,” he added.