Since the government launched the third Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) reconnection program on February 9, BEC has restored power to 3,600 disconnected households, which represents around 70 percent of customers who were without electricity in The Bahamas, according to Arnette Ingraham, BEC's public relations officer.
Minister of State for the Environment Phenton Neymour has said that 5,141 BEC customers were without electricity in the country up to February.
Ingraham told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that as of closing on Wednesday, 3,998 customers had registered for the electricity assistance initiative.
However, she said a small number of those customers' electricity were not
disconnected. She estimated that well over 4,000 customers registered for the program as of closing yesterday.
Ingraham said more than 70 percent of customers registering on the assistant program have been taking out three-year payment plans and the daily average of people registering is currently around 160 to 170.
However, she admitted that credit checks were not being conducted on customers to determine their eligibility to meet future payments.
"If you don't live up to your payment arrangements then you could be susceptible to being disconnected," Ingraham said.
"They come in and we advise them based on what they say they can pay. Some people don't need to take out an entire three years to pay off, let's say, an overdue balance of $500.
"Some of them can do that in a couple of months or a year versus taking out a three-year payment plan. So there is some form of advising that we do when they come in, but we do not do a credit check to see if they are eligible."
Ingraham estimated that BEC waived a total of $80,000 in reconnection fees.

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