Stellar Energy Ltd., which exploded into the public consciousness amid a political firestorm last year, has resurfaced after months of silence to reassert its ambitions for a waste-to-energy plant in New Providence.
Piggybacking on the announcement that U.S. firm PowerSecure has been contracted to manage the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), Stellar's principals called a press conference to welcome signs of movement in the energy sector. They also made it clear that they are "eager" to proceed with stalled research and testing, with a view to constructing a facility to convert trash into electricity.
The company made headlines last summer when it was revealed that the then parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works, Renward Wells, signed a $600 million letter of intent (LOI) with Stellar, without Cabinet approval.
In January, after six months of silence, Wells explained that he signed the document so as to allow the company to continue conducting feasibility tests free of charge to the government. He defended his efforts to move the process of energy reform along.
Nevertheless, his decision to sign the LOI without Cabinet approval led to Prime Minister Perry Christie asking for his resignation from his Ministry of Works post. After several months of Wells failing to resign, Christie fired him.
The Stellar chief operating officer, J.P. Michielsen, said at the press conference that the company "never asked for an LOI", only permission to continue its research. He said that had the right person signed the LOI, there would never have been a controversy in the first place.
"We just asked for a document that we could show our investors or potential investors as well as our technical team, that we were asked to do FEED (front end engineering design) studies," Michielsen said.
This may well be so. The fact remains, however, that there are still too many questions surrounding the matter for the deal to move forward without further explanation.
For instance, having conducted initial studies in the absence of documentation, why did Stellar suddenly feel the need to seek out official approval for its activities? If the LOI was not what was sought, how did this come to be the document that the parliamentary secretary signed? And, if Wells was the wrong official to sign the document, why did the company not approach the right man instead?
Furthermore, how is it that Wells could have been so ignorant of the proper procedure in such matters; and, if he did in fact break the rules, how did he manage to hold on to his parliamentary secretary job for so long after the fact?
The government would be remiss to even consider doing business with Stellar Energy Ltd. until such time as the public is offered full and frank answers to these questions and a host of other questions. We are in no way suggesting that the company has behaved improperly. The simple fact is, The Bahamas can no longer afford to conduct its official business in the dark. We have suffered the consequences for far too long.
Going forward, "No transparency, no deal" must be our mantra.
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