Dear Editor,
Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) chairman Leslie Miller must take all Bahamians for fools. He was quoted in the papers as saying that the corporation is owed $185 million and that he is urging everyone to pay their bills.
Does Miller think we all forget that his own family business owed a hefty BEC bill, more than $200,000, and that half of this was only paid when the fact of the bill's existence was made public on the front of the papers?
And, to add insult to injury, in asking members of the public - many of whom are struggling to make ends meet - to pay their bills, in the same breath, the executive chairman admits that the government of The Bahamas, of which he is a high-ranking member, itself owes around $30 million of the total deficit.
He added that hotels in the country also owe BEC millions upon millions of dollars.
I understand that the corporation which Miller heads finds itself in a very difficult position at the moment, having used up all its credit with its fuel supplier and needing to generate $40 million just to keep the lights on, so to speak.
At the same time, should he not be directing most, if not all, of his bill collecting efforts at those government and hotel sector big-wigs which he mentioned, who collectively owe more than every struggling Bahamian put together? How is it fair for Miller to avoid paying off his family business' BEC bill until almost forced to, and then talk about the need for timely payments from the rest of us?
To my mind, if the executive chairman wants Bahamians to help him pay for BEC's fuel, he should be the one to get the ball rolling by paying off the remainder of his family's outstanding bill. Maybe then, we can talk.
- Maud B.

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