Executives of the company that was pushing to become the new strategic partner for the Bahamas Telecommunications Company are going down fighting, making accusations that the government may have acted improperly in the whole privatization effort.
But President of BlueTel Lindbergh Smith today called off a press conference where he had promised to lay out details of their claim.
Mr. Smith said he put off the conference after his attorney, Philip “Brave” Davis, received a call over the weekend from a government official advising that the government wanted to meet with Blue. But he said he was unsure about the nature of the meeting.
However, there was no indication to this effect coming from the government.
The decision not to privatize at this time was revealed last Thursday by Minister of Works and Utilities Bradley Roberts with a formal announcement coming Friday from the Tenders Commission.
The Commission said that what was being offered by Blue Telecommunications would have resulted in insufficient value to the government and the prospect of unacceptable risks existed.
BlueTel officials claim that certain ministers have private interests in the privatization of BTC and would do whatever they can to derail the process and prevent certain bidders from being successful.
Company officials continue to suggest that there were underhand dealings in the Cabinet over the privatization of the state-owned phone company. But government officials have dismissed such accusations as “ludicrous”, going as far as to claim that Blue executives are “sore losers.”
BlueTel executive Andre Weech spoke to the Bahama Journal Friday, saying, “I feel that something has gone awry because the decision was made or the letter was dated when the prime minister…wasn’t on the island.”
Mr. Weech claimed that Blue was not given a fair opportunity during the negotiations.
“The government never gave us an opportunity to negotiate,” he said. “If the money wasn’t enough – we put $275 million on the table in a staged payment – if those terms were not acceptable to the government, the government should have…had the common courtesy and state that and give us the opportunity to adjust it to favourably meet their objectives.”
The Commission’s announcement last week to end negotiations with Blue brought to an end the initial privatizaton process which started in 1997.
The Commission had started negotiations with Blue after announcing that the preferred bidder – the BahamaTel Consortium – which was headed by Tom Bain – had a deficient business plan.
Mr. Weech said he believes there will be significant international repercussions as a result of the government’s decision to discontinue the privatization talks the way it did.
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
