August 1, 2007

The Abaconian Page5A

New BEC Chairman outlines his goals

 

Gottlieb From Page 1

“One of the challenges of the board
which I have been given the honor and the
privilege to chair by the Prime Minister
will be to address the reasons and the fac-
tors resulting in the corporation ceasing to
be profitable and turn it around by making
it profitable once again while minimizing
the impact of the cost of electricity to the
corporation’s customers.”

Consumers on Abaco have been com-
plaining for the last few years of inadequate
billing and continuous power outages in the
summer. What is the Chairman’s position
concerning the island? “As far as Abaco is
concerned,” explained Mr. Gottlieb, “the
immediate challenge is to put in place a new
generating plant which will be sufficient to
take care of the present demand, now and
for years to come.” He mentioned that a
site has not yet been definitely chosen.
“At the present time,” he said, “there are
controversies regarding the site for a new
plant; we are attempting to resolve issues
as quickly as possible. In any event,” he
assured, “it is my intention and the board’s

to have the
new plant up
and running
by the end of
2008. In the
meantime,”
he —contin-
ued, “every
effort — will
be made to
ensure that the
present demand
is met and that the number of power out-
ages is substantially reduced.”

“T have also instructed BEC’s manage-
ment on Abaco,” said Mr. Gottlieb, “to
immediately set about getting all street
lights in all the settlements of the island in
working order.”

Long term plans address the ever ris-
ing price of fuel that Mr. Gottlieb thinks
will continue to rise. “It is likely,” he said,
“that in years to come some countries like
The Bahamas will find it increasingly diffi-
cult to obtain sufficient oil at economically
viable prices. The board is therefore ana-
lyzing the possibility of establishing alter-
native sources of energy, particularly solar

Frederik Gottlieb
Chairman, BEC

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energy, with a view of making The Baha-
mas self sufficient as far as energy require-
ments are concerned,” said the Chairman.
“Tt would be irresponsible in my view not
to begin the process of investigating and
determining suitable alternative sources of
energy for The Bahamas.”

As whether the present management on
Abaco would stay in place, Mr. Gottlieb
said he was not able to comment at this
time but that “the matter and other issues
are being reviewed.”

The first meeting of the new Board took
place on July 12th and from then on, the
new Chairman will have to travel to Nas-
sau every week. “It is a big challenge to

| Famo

do it while running my law office,” he
said, “but I did it before. I was Chair-
man of Water and Sewerage and did the
upgrade of the water facilities on Abaco.
While chairing the Bahamas Development
Bank, I was able to achieve positive results
in having the Bank make a greater propor-
tion of loans to the Family Islands. Baha-
masAir, however, was the greatest chal-
lenge,” reminisced Mr. Gottlieb.

He concluded by saying, “With the as-
sistance of the Board and the government
and the cooperation of the management and
the employees of BEC, many of the chal-
lenges will be successfully met.”

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