By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former Cabinet minister yesterday predicted his Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) class action lawsuit will be in “full flight” by end-November after gaining around 1,000 members.

Damian Gomez, minister of state for legal affairs under the Christie administration, told Tribune Business he “should be in a position to start the file as early as November 21” after obtaining sufficient support from Bahamians outraged by the misery and financial losses caused by BPL’s persistent summer power outages.

Suggesting he was “very hopeful and optimistic” of winning compensation for the “class members”, Mr Gomez said there was a “quiet, festering anger” among most Bahamian households and businesses over what the state-owned utility monopoly had forced them to endure.

He added that he would move forward on “courting” other parties that had expressed an interest in joining the lawsuit, such as several trade unions, once he had finished helping to defend ex-fellow Cabinet minister, Shane Gibson, against bribery charges before the Supreme Court.

Mr Gomez also rejected concerns that success would impose a further financial burden on taxpayers or BPL customers, describing this as an unjustifiable basis for not proceeding. He questioned whether those harbouring such fears would feel the same way about compensation won from the government on behalf of victims of police abuse.

“I have been tied up in court, and I will turn my attention to it when we’ve finished with the Shane Gibson thing,” the ex-Cabinet minister said of the lawsuit’s progress. “We have set, sort of as a benchmark, November because we were looking at how many people we would have attracted, and I think the number is hovering around 1,000.

“We are near the number I was looking at. It will be in full flight to go by the last week of November. Most people didn’t know I was offering the service, and that delayed the initial surge in the numbers, but as the word has spread more and more people have approached me. We should be in a position to start the file as early as November 21.”

Mr Gomez said there had been no “wavering” in backing for his action, adding: “We’d indicated to everybody that we were looking at November as the potential starting time. No one has pulled out.

“There were a couple of trade unions who had indicated their interest, but they have not come back to me and I’ve not had time to court them as I intended to do. As soon as I’ve finished with Shane’s matter I will move forward on that.”

The former Cabinet minister told Tribune Business that he was pursuing “a straight-up consumer war” against BPL when he announced his intention to bring a class action lawsuit against the utility in late August just prior to Dorian’s arrival.

At the time, he urged Bahamians to stand up for their rights and stop passively accepting poor service and high costs from their utility providers amid the average daily three-hour load shedding and blackouts that BPL’s New Providence customers were facing as a result of its generation capacity shortfall.

News of Mr Gomez’s plans, though, did not meet with universal approval as some postings to The Tribune’s website expressed concern that BPL consumers and/or Bahamian taxpayers would ultimately pay for any compensation he won on behalf of class members through higher electricity prices and/or taxes.

The former Cabinet minister, though, yesterday rejected such arguments as a false narrative, and questioned whether similar concerns would be expressed over compensation he had won for clients who had been beaten and abused in police custody. “I don’t think it’s a justifiable reason not to sue,” he told Tribune Business of the BPL case.

Describing Bahamian attitudes to this summer’s energy crisis, Mr Gomez added: “It’s sort of a quiet anger, which in a sense is worrying. When people are shouting and carrying on, they’re releasing some of the pent-up pressure. That is a festering anger.

“It’s adversely affected business, and for preparation for court and stuff it’s been extremely inconvenient. On [BPL’s] liability, we have a fairly strong case. The issue will be proving individual quantums of damage suffered by different members of the class. It varies from household to household, and among the professional groups it could be significant.”

Explaining why he had decided to act in an August social media posting, Mr Gomez wrote: “It’s time for Bahamian consumers to stand up and shake off the sense of victimhood. We have the right to a consistent, reliable supply of electricity.

“The supplier, BPL, and its predecessor have failed us consumers. Our government has failed us. We have the statutory right of recourse before the Supreme Court. Let us exercise our rights by suing for compensation against BEC, BNPL, URCA and the Government.

“If you believe in accountability, join the class action lawsuit. It is high time we protect ourselves from the rapacious bureaucracy which abuses the Bahamian electricity consumers. We must put an end to the deaths from heat stroke and other deaths caused by the power outages. Join the fight. Bahamians need to fight for the rights of Bahamians.”

BPL’s load shedding and daily outages have reduced in frequency and length in recent weeks, although this is more due to lowered energy demand as the temperatures reduce and The Bahamas heads into fall.

The utility, in regular daily statements, says it is close to bringing back on line the two engines at its Blue Hills power plant that sparked the energy supply crisis when they both failed in early summer and took 44 Mega Watts (MW) off-line. This left a daily generation shortfall of around 25-30 MW.

Desmond Bannister, minister of works, subsequently pledged to Tribune Business that New Providence residents would “never go through a summer like that again”. All eyes are now on the installation of 132 MW in new generation capacity procured from Wartsila, which is supposed to be completed by mid-December.

The new engines are ultimately to be absorbed into the new multi-fuel power plant that Shell North America is to construct at Clifton Pier by 2021-2022.