Emerging out of an intense eight-month negotiation process with the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, management of the government-owned electricity corporation is now boasting of a new entity as it moves forward, intent on minimizing cost, training and educating employees and improving service.
Newly appointed General Manager Kevin Basden, who succeeded Bradley Roberts said gone are the days of “mediocrity”.
He envisioned that BEC will be a “trendsetter” in the country as it begins to unfold several strategic plans designed to meet the challenges of running one of the country’s largest organizations.
Mr. Basden claimed that the BEC the public sees is one with a “very bright future.”
“We believe that with a good trained staff we can meet those needs not only for the benefit of BEC, but for the benefit of the Bahamian public at large,” he said in a recent interview with the Guardian.
“We also recognize that customer expectations have changed, they are not what they used to be. The demands are higher the demands are greater and we see ourselves as the driver of the economy. Everything that happens in this country is impacted by BEC, so therefore we will take out all stops to give improve service at all levels for the benefit of the Bahamian public,” he noted.
Accordingly, BEC’s Executive Chairman Al Jarrett said a complete analysis of the corporate structure is being undertaken to better meet the demands of its customers, coinciding with the government’s thrust of developing the Family Islands.
“We want to position BEC to provide better services to the various Family Islands over the ensuing years. We know this is going to be a major challenge because a lot of developments are taking place, but BEC has to be in the forefront of these investments,” said Mr Jarrett.
“You are going to hear about us improving our internal systems of controls so that there will be less leakages in terms of BEC’s revenue and better controls in terms of the checks and balances systems. WE are going to put a lot of emphasis on training and also trying to establish on those family Islands an integrated computerized system of control so that we can pull information out more readily for the public and for our own managerial needs,” he explained.
Mr Jarrett emphasized that more resources are going to be placed in BEC’s Department of Planning and Research so that things can be planned in advance on where the needs are and employees can move quickly to head of any kind of concerns or problems.
“You might want to dub BEC the new BEC because we are going to be undergoing some new changes all geared toward creating more efficiencies,” he said.
Less than two weeks ago, the Corporation signed a four-year $15.5 million contract with the union. Labeled an historic agreement, it is the first time a public service corporation have included in its contract a pay for performance/productivity clause.
Not only that, but a Performance Management System have been put in place for executives.
“Gone are the days whereby the person that is really putting in the hours and getting results end up getting the same pay as the person who just want to show up on the job,” said Mr. Basden.
“We recognize the need for standards, we recognize the need to manage for results and therefore from a general perspective the performance management system put standards in place, and highlight certain key goals that we want to achieve and persons will then be measured by those,” he said.
Keva Lightbourne, The Nassau Guardian
