It has been two months since it was revealed that a foreign company admitted to bribing a Bahamian official more than a decade ago to secure a lucrative Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) contract. So far, there have been no answers in this case, not for Bahamians interested in knowing what really happened. Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts told The Nassau Guardian that a parliamentary committee should be appointed to "get to the bottom of this".

In December, The Bahamas was featured prominently in a plea agreement whereby French company, Alstom SA agreed to pay $772 million to resolve allegations that it bribed high-ranking officials of foreign governments for lucrative projects. In relation to The Bahamas, the events detailed by court documents took place between 1999 and 2001.

Several weeks ago, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson confirmed that she had requested information from the Americans in relation to the matter. The government has been quiet on the specific steps it has taken and on whether it has received any response from the United States (U.S.) to the matter. Last week, Maynard-Gibson said she will speak to the issue at the appropriate time. Roberts told The Nassau Guardian that the $330,000 bribe Alstom detailed was one issue.

"The bigger issue was the cost to BEC of those two generators in maintenance and repairs to those engines that constantly break down that still challenge BEC after all these years up to the present time," he said, referring to the generator contracts Alstom secured. "The Bahamian people really need to the know the extent to which the taxpayers had to carry that burden after a decision was made to buy one generator, which was compounded when they bought the identical generator later on and the same problem that occurred with the second generator has occurred with the first one and both continue today."

As The Nassau Guardian has highlighted previously, a key question that remains is why did the Cabinet of The Bahamas reject a decision of the then board of BEC, headed at the time by J. Barrie Farrington, to award the generator contract in question to the Korean firm Hanjung?

Roberts said on Friday, "I think that the public needs to know and a parliamentary probe would uncover the full extent to which we were burdened by that decision and it is interesting that the then deputy chairman of BEC, who was a former senior executive of BEC, had gotten the board to agree to recommend the Korean company, which was knocked down by the cabinet, which resulted in him resigning. He felt so strongly about it, Mr. [Vincent] D'Aguilar, that he walked away from being a member of the board of BEC."

Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has said the matter should be turned over to police. Asked if he agreed, Roberts said, "Yes. It should be a police matter, but I think it should go further than that. He should have been in a position to tell the press why the government took the decision and ignored the advice of the unanimous decision of the board, but he chose not to."

Roberts previously pointed to issues with the Alstom contract. As minister of works with responsibility for BEC, he said in a communication in the House of Assembly on May 14, 2003 the BEC board unanimously agreed to award the contract for a DA-12 generator to the Korean firm.

Speaking of the BEC bribe matter in an interview with The Guardian on Friday, Roberts said, "It's strange. Very strange. Very strange. That was a major decision to ignore completely the unanimous decision of the board and management of the corporation. A parliamentary committee would certainly be able to get an answer to that."

Roberts also said he did not think it was taking too long to get answers from the U.S. government on this issue.

"It's a matter of relationship of government to government," he said. "What might be a priority for us may not necessarily be a priority for the U.S. government at this time, but eventually they will be required to provide the information."

He added, "The government must get to the bottom because it is an embarrassment to us as a people that something like that could happen and that those in charge, for example the former deputy prime minister, Mr. [Frank] Watson, who had responsibility, they seem to be completely oblivious that it happened. And the sitting chairman of BEC, J. Barrie Farrington, he was shocked, bewildered that something like that could have happened."

On Friday, Farrington, who previously called for an investigation in the matter, reiterated that he would support "a non partisan special committee appointed to get to the bottom of this, to find out exactly the person or persons responsible who have taken the bribe and in effect tarnished the reputation of the country, the board then sitting and the previous government."

He added, "Quite frankly, I am of the opinion that sufficient time has elapsed and that we should have an answer on the disclosure of the guilty person or some sort of more precise information on what steps are being taken. This is important. Very important in my opinion."

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