GRAND BAHAMA PORT AUTHORITY PULLING A FAST ONE
One of the issues over which the FNM and the PLP are divided is the role of the Grand Bahama Port Authority in the ongoing governance of Grand Bahama. The PLP says that the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the model of governance that began in 1955 is outdated and should fall away. The PLP’s Prime Minister Philip Davis has formally demanded the sum of 357 million dollars that the Port owes The Bahamas government. The matter is now in arbitration.
The PLP says that the attempt by the Grand Bahama Power Company to go to the Grand Bahama Port Authority in order to increase the electricity rates in Grand Bahama is unlawful. The Free National Movement says that the Port has the jurisdiction. They tried to soften the political push back in Grand Bahama by saying that the FNM does not agree with the increase itself. They even mounted a demonstration against the increase, well after everyone else had had their say. They were a day late and a dollar short.
Now the Grand Bahama Port Authority has taken the matter one step further by announcing that not only were they assuming jurisdiction over the proposed increase request but they were starting a period of public consultation on the matter of the increase. We wonder what public consultation they need since the increase has been publicly, loudly and universally condemned. They must be tone deaf.
The Utilities Regulatory Competition Authority (URCA) who has the jurisdiction by statute, issued a statement saying that they would go to the lengths of the law to assert their jurisdiction in the matter.
The PLP”s Chair Fred Mitchell said that the Grand Bahama Port Authority was in this matter of the rate increases engaged in an exercise of “folly and futility”. We agree and call on the Grand Bahama Port Authority to desist in this folly.
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