Officials of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation are suing The Wyndham Nassau Resort and Crystal Palace Casino, formerly the Nassau Marriott, for reportedly failing to pay a multimillion-dollar electricity bill.
The hotel on the Cable Beach Strip reportedly owes the corporation close to $4 million.ﾠ
Driven by what it calls a need to create a better managed and more productive entity, the corporation is determined to get the money, putting pressure on the Phil Ruffin group to pay up.
Wyndham Nassau officials, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped yesterday on reports that they have been negligent in paying the electricity bill.ﾠ
The hotel's bill climbed since last year when it stood at $2.5, a source told the Bahama Journal.
The government itself owes BEC between $30 million and $40 million, the Journal has learnt.
BEC officials declined yesterday to comment on the lawsuit citing "privacy concerns" but one source close to the corporation said BEC has $35 million in accounts receivables from the private sector.
Corporation officials are fearful that if the hotel is sold at any point in the future, BEC would be left "holding the bag."
It's a concern that comes as other businesses have shut down, failing to pay off their debts to BEC.
Gladstone Farms, for example, reportedly went out of business several months ago owing BEC $900,000. When it went out of business Divi Bahamas is said to have owed the corporation $600,000.ﾠ The Pilot House reportedly owed the corporation close to a half million dollars.
A source said that BEC has adopted a "no tolerance" policy, toward all customers.
"We sell electricity for cash," he said. "If you can't collect money then it puts a real strain on your cash flow."
The source recognized that the accounts receivables problem "can't be solved overnight.ﾠ It's a chronic problem."
He pointed out that because the law firm of Prime Minister Perry Christie was counsel for Mr. Ruffin while he [Mr. Christie] was in opposition, there are charges that the hotel's management may have taken "certain liberties."
A key source in BEC said that the board is aware that there "is a bit of politics" involved in the whole matter, but is committed to "doing what is in the best interest of the Bahamian people."
In recent years, BEC, which is slowly being positioned for privatisation, has had a high overdraft and, according to the source, borrowing too much money because some customers refuse to pay their bills.
When the new board of the corporation was appointed last year, it recognized that BEC was struggling with a lack of proper maintenance and its expenses were exceeding its revenue.
One official told the Bahama Journal that, "We're positioning BEC to be ran like a business, but we have a ways to go to change the culture."
He said that privatisation has been put on the backburner because much still has to be done to make the corporation a more efficient operation.
