{"id":35595,"date":"2013-05-14T08:46:14","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T12:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=35595"},"modified":"2013-05-14T08:50:03","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T12:50:03","slug":"neymour-accuses-miller-of-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/05\/neymour-accuses-miller-of-hypocrisy","title":{"rendered":"Neymour Accuses Miller Of Hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former minister with responsibility for the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), Phenton Neymour, recently accused BEC Chairman Leslie Miller of hypocrisy after he announced a new reconnection initiative similar to the one crafted by the Ingraham adminstration that Miller previously criticized.<\/p>\n

Last week Miller announced that the government intends to reconnect the electricity supplies of more than 7,000 delinquent consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very disappointed in Mr. Miller,\u201d Neymour said. \u201cMiller stated that the Free National Movement put BEC in a poor position when we put in place a very similar program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neymour was referring to Miller\u2019s critique of the former administration’s electricity reconnection and payment plan program which was intended to provide relief and generate revenue from delinquent and returning customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is being hypocritical,” Neymour said. \u201cHe orignally criticized the program saying it was not good, and saying it helped people who could have paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you are putting a policy in place, it must be a policy for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in March, Miller said many of the customers who benefitted from the former administration\u2019s initiative were in the \u201cupper income bracket\u201d. He said the move ultimately had a negative impact on BEC\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n

The former administration\u2019s initiative, which was launched last February, was also branded as an \u201celection ploy\u201d by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) at the time.<\/p>\n

But Neymour insisted that the program did not have any impact on BEC\u2019s finances. He said the government gave BEC $4 million at the time to cover any financial implications that would come from the program.<\/p>\n

Miller said he wants all households to be reconnected by June 1, adding that delinquent customers will be required to pay a portion of their bill in order to be reconnected.<\/p>\n

He gave an example that a customer who owes $2,000 would be reconnected upon paying $400.<\/p>\n

A customer with a bill of $3,000 or less will be expected to pay
\na \u201cfair amount\u201d, while a customer with a bill of $4,000 must pay 25 percent.<\/p>\n

Asked for his views of the new initiative, Neymour said he does not have sufficient details about the plan. However, he said it is an indication that the FNM was on the right track.<\/p>\n

And while Neymour said he supports initiatives aimed at assisting struggling families, he said he has a few concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started the program, it was I who announced that there were 5,200 who were disconnected from BEC, \u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday he is announcing that the figure exceeds 7,000 which implies that BEC\u2019s position is far worse than what it was under the FNM. It also means that the receivables are much worse than when we were in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neymour said the high cost of electricity has contributed to the increase in delinquent accounts.<\/p>\n

He said if the government really wants to impact the lives of Bahamians it should fulfill its promise to lower the electricity rates.<\/p>\n

By Krystel Rolle<\/span><\/em>
\nGuardian Staff Reporter<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former minister Phenton Neymour accused BEC Chairman Leslie Miller of hypocrisy after Miller announced a reconnection plan similar to the one crafted by the Ingraham Adminstration, which Miller criticized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[90,862,1648],"class_list":["post-35595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-bec","tag-leslie-miller","tag-phenton-neymour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}