Gbpc as a private company is not in the business, nor should they be of providing welfare assistance. The govt refused to pay anything on their electrical bill for ONE Year! Needless, to say the govt paid their entire outstanding bill of over 1 million dollars in a matter of 2 days after the schools rightly were disconnected. Tal stop condoning slackness. It is sorry, misinformed apologists like you that are ruining our country. The govt must pay their bills just like private citizens.

Thank you. Tal may be entitled to his misinformed opinion but not the facts. grand Bahama power company is a win for everyone, all around. The new modern efficient plant has allowed rates to fall much lower than at B.E.C, while providing reliable power so customers are happy. On the other hand gbpc is now profitable for the first time in many years (last year 11.8 million net income) and is on a footing to provide, relatively cheap, stable power for many years to come. All the things B.E.C is not, well on track for 30 million in losses this year!

Tal you are either grossly misinformed or straight up lying about grand Bahama power company. First of all their rates are now much lower than B.E.C. Go to their website and educate yourself. Depending on your Kwhr usage you will pay on average 20 cents per kwhr in the base rate and the current fuel surcharge for now is just 15.96. The average total B.E.C rate in well over 40 cents per kwhr. Secondly they have a new modern plant run by an experienced private company that does preventative maintenance. Power failures have been reduced drastically, and they have far fewer outages than B.E.C. So please inform yourself and stop lying!

I wish this practice of withholding names would stop. Why is this private? If you work for the civil service,the taxpayers ( who pay your salary and are in effect your employers) have a right to know how much they are paying you. The salary of every civil servant in this country should be public knowledge. Otherwise we have the current system where the corruption is done in the dark where it continues to flourish no end. The tribune would do a great public service by bringing this dirt into the light and name these people. Only then will it end.

The excessive salary and benefits this Union enjoys is born on the backs of the long suffering Bahamian public. If a corporation is losing money no bonuses should be paid, period, much less a free ride of 100% pension and health insurance that this Union demands, it is simply criminal what they have done to all of us especially the poor. I hope every B.E.C Union worker thinks of the over 4000 Bahamian households this Christmas who will be without power, as they gorge themselves. Shame on them, they are simply traitors to this country who in their greed are taking all so those with little will have none.

The excessive salary and benefits this Union enjoys is born on the backs of the long suffering Bahamian public. If a corporation is losing money no bonuses should be paid, period, much less a free ride of 100% pension and health insurance that this Union demands, it is simply criminal what they have done to all of us especially the poor. I hope every B.E.C Union worker thinks of the over 4000 Bahamian households this Christmas who will be without power, as they gorge themselves. Shame on them, they are simply traitors to this country who in their greed are taking all so those with little will have none.

Does Mr. miller think we are stupid enough to believe this nonsense? Fuel surcharge is supposed to vary up or down based on the price of oil and amount of oil consumed. The govt has never said they have a fixed priced contract with shell, and suddenly in January the contract will revert to a fluctuating one based on lower world prices? Absolute hogwash. Be honest and stop ripping off the Bahamian public. What is clearly happening is for months B.EC has been paying far lees for oil and not passing on the savings to a long suffering Bahamian public. These savings are being used by the corporation to pay back bills and cover wasteful, corruption.

The dirtiest four- letter word I can think of is B A N K. Bahamian banks have 20% of their loan portfolio in arrears, meaning they can not charge interest on these delinquent accounts. So to make up for this shortfall, they are increasing fees on their good customers! Their fees are absolutely criminal. Last week on top of the usual service fees, my bank added a $15 monthly fee, so I went in and closed my account and my credit card with them. Bahamians need to realize that the bank is not their friend, and is only interested in their profit and separating their customers from as much of their money as possible.

Mr. Wilson your exoneration of BOB's board is complete hogwash. While it is true scotiabank and first Caribbean also booked huge loan loss provisions on bad loans, they did not require a bailout and still had adequate capital levels and retained earnings. Scotiabank earned 5.7 billion in net income last year, so a 109 million loss is really immaterial. BOB on the otherhand because of the incompetence of it's management and board booked a 69 million loss that was not immaterial and meant that the bank was for all intents insolvent. This despite being recapitalized earlier this year by NIB. This entire board and management needs to be replaced, before they destroy any chance of this bank returning to profitability and become an even larger drain on a weary Bahamian taxpayer. Anyone with more than the deposit guaranteed level of $50,000 in this bank is playing with fire and need their head examined.

So much blame to go around but no accountability. Of course the entire BOB board should be replaced immediately. The managing director's resignation should have been tendered Friday. Anyone who leaves more than $50,000 (max level depositors insured for) in this bank needs their head examined. Of this bank's 750 million loan portfolio an astounding 58% of the loans are either past due or impaired. There is no sugar coating it as that farce of a press conference tried to do on Friday, this bank has been grossly mismanaged and if not for govt intervention would be teetering on insolvency. It is truly frightening the financial situation this bank is in.