As the political directorate moves speedily ahead to privatise Bahamas Telecommunications Company, there are a few observations which unlike the privatisation process will withstand scrutiny. Privatisation is the punishment meted out to governments, the corporations they control and the people they serve because they failed to managed the resources and assets entrusted to them.
Currently a group known as Bluewater appears to be the front runner for gaining control of BTC’s hard earned assets.
Despite the mismanagement of the country’s telecommunications assets by the political directorate it nonetheless made and continues to make a profit.
Since the selection of managers and directors was undertaken by the political directorate and since the record is replete with its intrusion throughout the life of the corporation, the political directorate has in large measure to take responsibility for the parlous state of the telecommunications company.
The political directorate has long maintained that only through privatisation can the country enjoy cutting edge technology, an argument that is spurious in the extreme. The second leg of the economy, banking, rests upon the ability of those whose money is posited in The Bahamas, having ready access to those who mange their money and that means reliable telecommunications.
Spurious, for despite its shambolic management practices – it cannot provide landlines in a reasonable period of time; GSM remains unreliable; Cable Bahamas was able to corner the internet market – BTC has been able to get access to the latest in technology.
The political directorate’s interference has finally caught up with the company and the directorate. Instead of cleaning up the BTC – downsizing, installing competent managers and directors and ending its intrusion – the directorate has decided to give control of the company to a “strategic partner” who, in order to maximise its profits, will do that for which the political directorate has neither the stomach nor the will.
And for this the country will be that poorer. Privatisation means that up to 49 percent of BTC’s net profit will now make its way out of The Bahamas, for good. What is also problematic but presumably not for the political directorate is the deal.
When the subject was first broached over a decade ago the political directorate informed the people who elected them to serve their interests that the sale of up to 49 percent was good for among other reasons, because it would bring anywhere from $200 million plus for the government to pay off its debts.
The political directorate is prepared to give control of up to 49 percent of one of its most important assets into non-Bahamian hands. And there is no plan B. Should the non-Bahamian entity decide, for whatever reason, it would like to exit the arrangement, the political directorate will have to find more, much more than what it received, in order to repatriate the BTC shares held by the non-Bahamian company.
And as the recent sale of Winn-Dixie’s 3.9 million shares to Bahamians proved Bahamians are bullish about keeping their ‘tinges’. So why the rush to sell them off in the first place. Aren’t Bahamian assets and sovereignty too precious to be given away because the political directorate is unwilling to “do the right thing”?
By: C. E. HUGGINS, Business Editor, The Nassau Guardian
