Many questions remain on Electricity Department Changeover
Many questions still remain on the transition of the Electricity Department to the privately owned St. Kitts Electricity Company.
At the press conference held on June 10, 2011 the Minister of Energy and Public Utilities Dr. Earl Asim Martin, revealed that Government would continue to own the “private company” but would not be involved in the day to day activities of the company. Workers of this company would not be civil servants, he explained.
Minister Martin also revealed that Government had contracted a management firm, Caribbean Utilities Company, to manage the operations of the new St. Kitts Electricity Company for three years.
Apart from informing the media that Government was ensuring that present workers received whatever compensation was due to them, Minister Martin was unable to or chose not to give more information on the management company or the selection process.
Why was Mr. Halva Hendrickson not invited to this press conference? As Head of the Privatization Unit, he also holds a seat on the Social Security Board and would have been in a position to clarify to reporters what steps had been taken to select this management company which we now learn is based in the Cayman Islands. He would also have inside information on what part of the bill was given to Social Security to compensate workers who were being terminated.
Was this the most efficient and experienced company in the region? What of our Caricom states that have already privatised their Electricity Departments e.g NEVELEC (Nevis) and LUCELEC (St. Lucia).
In the interest of Caricom Integration, should we have sought to use a management company within the region ? (We are aware that Cayman Islands is an Associate of Caricom).
We feel that Mr. Hendrickson would have been able to reveal the process of selection and put our minds to rest that this was not an arbitrary selection. This allegedly is what has plagued the Electricity Department in the past – arbitrary decisions.
Our major concern, however, is that a management firm is being contracted to fix technical/engineering short-comings.
For the past fifteen years, we have been plagued by power outages due to problems maintaining consistently faulty generators. We have not been told of management problems.
To our thinking, an engineering team may have been a more relevant selection if we are thinking in terms of fixing our electricity problems.
The country needs a Press Conference now so that Mr. Hendrickson can give account of his stewardship and satisfy nationals that this privatisation (preceded by a very steep electricity rate increase) of the Electricity Department is really what the country needs to solve its Electricity impasse, and not just an answer being given to IMF that it is proceeding with privatisation to settle its outstanding national debt.
