NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC -Prime Minister Phillip Davis says the former Free National Movement (FNM) government “never had a viable, structured plan for energy reform” in the Bahamas and that his administration had to secure a US$100 million loan urgently when it came into office in 2021 to keep the Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) afloat.
Davis responded to a statement by FNM and Opposition Leader Michael Pintard, who accused the ruling Progressive Labour Party (PLP) of spreading “misinformation” about the last administration’s energy reform strategy.
He said the Hubert Minnis administration had “a real, structured plan for energy reform” even though it was never fully implemented.
“The PLP, on the other hand, has wasted nearly four years without publishing a comprehensive energy plan with clear financial projection,” he said.
However, the Office of the Prime Minister said in a statement that the country was in crisis when the Davis administration took office in September 2021.
“The new government inherited a fiscal emergency, hospitals in disrepair, schools shuttered, record unemployment, and a failing BPL, which was saddled with more than $500 million in debt. The government had to loan BPL $100 million to keep it afloat urgently,” it said.
The government said just before the election that the Minnis-Pintard administration kept spending money “they didn’t have” on a reckless US$14 million land deal tied to a project they knew had no path forward.
“Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) had made it clear: the only way to close the land deal was with proceeds from the Rate Reduction Bond (RRB). The same RRB the FNM had failed to execute — and knew wouldn’t happen.”
The government said that despite this, in August 2021, weeks before voters went to the polls, the Minnis government was still “throwing big money at it.”
“In October 2020, they had already authorized a $5.26 million payment and signed a $9.8 million promissory note. Then, in April 2021, they paid an additional $2 million for a short extension. The original closing date was December 1, 2020.”
Davis said that when his government took office, “the promissory note had already been amended three times.”
He said BPL’s lawyers attempted to renegotiate “to at least retain a portion of the land equal to the seven million dollars already spent,” but the vendor silenced those efforts.
“No legal safeguards were put in place in this arrangement under the previous government. There are no protections for public money. No guarantees to recover what had already been spent.”
The government said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, significant clean energy investments were made across the region but not in The Bahamas.
“But weeks before the election, with sky-high unemployment and suffering across the country, they were rushing forward with a land deal worth millions — despite no funding, project, or protections.
“This wasn’t a transition failure. It was an outgoing administration’s deliberate, reckless decision,” it added.
Prime Minister Davis said that Pintard “knows the FNM never had a viable, structured plan for energy reform. If he disagrees, he should make it public. The Bahamian people deserve to see a plan they were promised repeatedly but never received”.
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