BIM "Open Letter" Email Response to the FTC
Submitted by Barbados Integrity Movement (BIM)
Dear Ms. Sealy,
Having previously noted receipt of your correspondence of earlier today in reply to our (BIM) Open Letter to the FTC on several matters, one of grave concern being the redacted documents for the Public perusal at the offices of the FTC as well as lack of pertinent details in the thirteen (13) page “Summary Document”.
We note that this is the eve of the FTC’s stipulated date (March 8th, 2017) to receive public comments or submissions regarding the subject of the proposed sale of the BNTCL to the SOL Group a single potential purchaser of the sole National Petroleum product storage facility in the country.
In our letter we outlined and expressed our concerns that the FTC has not made the following information available to the Barbadian public:
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The BNTCL sale to the SOL Group “Summary Document“ MUST be a document prepared by the FTC after careful evaluation and perusal of the facts and information provided by the two entities (BNTCL and SOL Group) involved in the proposed sale and NOT that of the vendor the SOL Group having a vested interest in the purchase of the BNTCL!
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Proposed “Agreed Sale Price” between the BNTCL and the SOL Group, please provide to the public.
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Existing “Throughput Rate” being earned by the BNTCL as a Government owned entity, please provide to the public.
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“Agreed Increase Throughput Rate” between the SOL Group and the Government of Barbados after the BNTCL Sale, please provide to the public.
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Is the “Agreed Throughput Rate” fixed or floating for the “15 year Protection Period” that the Government has agreed to grant the SOL Group against other competition in the storage of Petroleum products in Barbados?
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What mechanism was utilized to arrive at the “Agreed Increase in Throughput Rates” to the SOL Group?
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Since the “Protection Period” agreed on behalf of the SOL Group is 15 years, what will be the estimated earnings of the SOL Group in throughput Rates over and above those of the current BNTCL with an estimated annual profit of BD$80 MILLION (Est BD$ 1.2 BILLION over 15 years) in the scenario that the sale had not occurred?
In the absence of the above listed queries and against the backdrop that such information is pertinent to ALL Barbadians weighing in on this matter of National interest and concern in that the BNTCL remains until sold an “Asset” owned by the People of Barbados; and until such time as the FTC makes such information a Public Document, there can be NO closure to this matter!
What is the FTC evaluating and against what information?
What informed decision can the People of Barbados make in the absence of FACTS?
We the People of Barbados herein demand that the information requested above be presented to the public domain through the FTC for our edification and discussion with no less than four (4) Town Hall Meetings being held to discuss the effects of such a sale to a single party thereby creating a “MONOPOLY” and unfair competition in the Barbados Petroleum Market which will redound to increased pricing of the said petroleum products to Barbadians.
In this regard, we demand that the FTC acts with alacrity to address the stated concerns with clarity and equity in the remit of the FTC Act mandating the powers of the FTC to represent the interest of the People of Barbados.
We look forward to your providing the People of Barbados and Electorate with the stated information requested herein within the next seven (7) days of today’s date.
Any divergence from the above will be a miscarriage of justice and at best failure to inform and protect the very populace for which the FTC was mandated and legislated through an ACT of the Parliament of Barbados.
We attach a copy of our Open Letter along with our evaluation of the “Summary Document” for your careful consideration with our many queries and concerns thereto attached!
Respectfully
Neil a. Holder
POLITICAL LEADER
Barbados Underground 
No sale,,,,,Price Hikes coming right after and maybe right before the sale , more money and the VAT to come on the hike,
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@ Mr. Holder
You stated “We attach a copy of our Open Letter along with our evaluation of the “Summary Document” for your careful consideration with our many queries and concerns thereto attached…”
I can “see” the open letter but where is the Summary document attached?
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The following was circulated to media for circulation:
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@ Honourable Blogmaster
Where is the “Attached Summary”?
I cant download it from the FTC and I cant get it from B.I.M
THis like it is a National Security Issue and people cannot get this summary document fuh badword!!!
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@PUDRYR
Trying to get it.
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@PUDRYR
Summary updated to bog, here is the link.
Click to access bntcl_acquisition_public_information_document-with-comments-by-bim.pdf
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@ The Honourable Blogmaster
Thanking you bigly heheheheheheheh
Where does a fellow start with this nuh?
THis is a 13 page document that from the looks of of the comments, represents a document that was made barren of any information through which the public can make an informed decision.
That concerns me for the obvious reason that one cannot make an informed decision but and here is the main issue, THAT THE FEAR TRADING COMMISSION allowed this document to be issued.
And has given the public 2 weeks to respond to it!!
That is really where the collusion is becoming apparent.
At the FTC under the aegis of Sandra Layne CEO.
THere can only be one conclusion about this matter though and that is, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE MORALS OF OUR MAN JEFF, the FTC is going to rule for this unconscionable sale and suffering pun Bajans
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Why is the BLP prepared to march on all kinds of non-issues and not a single word on the BNTCL sale to SOL Group nor did they say a word in Parliament when the Resolution was passed to sell 35.7 acres of Crown lands from the NHC to BNTCL in December for BD$15MIL that the SOL Group will inherit and build another terminal tank and thereby the government will relinquish their “Golden Share” rights!!! WHY DE SILENCE MIA MOTTLEY?????
THIS WILL HURT BARBADIANS and MIA QUIET!!! WONDERING WHY SHE WONT TOUCH THIS SUBJECT? SHE WOULD’NT TALK ABOUT FOUR SEASONS EITHER.
YET YOU WANT BAJANS TO MARCH WELL YES , BECAUSE WE SOON ALL GONNA HAVE TO WALK WHEN WE CANT AFFORD BUS FARES!!!
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@ Eagle Eyes
What page is that on?
Ah yes, page 8 which reads “…This type of structure is what is often referred to as a “golden share” which are often held by governments in a governmental company undergoing the process of privatization…)
Now this share sounds like the founding share that the Late Trevor Clarke referred to as bing what he had in the Nation Publishing Company and which up to hos death he was unable to have ratified.
But jes a second thar pilgrim!
Do not Embar-ass the Leader of the Opposition Mugabe Mottley or loo for short – Loo’ is often used in informal British English to mean ‘toilet’ as in jobby or sh*t, as in the jobby she been doing for all these years.
You honestly do not expect Mugabe Mottley to get up off her rotund ass of privilege and say anything in the HoA (pronounced hoare) about the fraudulent sale of land and a share which “shall be redeemed by BNTCL immediately upon the building or commissioning of any other petroleum products terminalling facilities in Barbados…”
Of course now you see why David Come Sing a Song ent in this fight for the average Bajan either
But you pun page 7 and de ole man still pun page 3.
You is a intelligent Blogger I cud see dat (whu you even named eagle eyes) so i gine back here and try to catch up with the page that you are on
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Reports from inside sources (of an African nationality) have disclosed that there is a battle en train between the people who love taking Galaxy S7 phones and Data packages to call dem peoples in Jam Town and “the Man of Steel”.
Time alone will tell if Lady Justice, wielded by the Luminary and Promoter of Laws and Equity, will over-rule this “Lilith” who is purported to have already sold her soul for a 1,000 minute plan for every one of her family members.
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which refers to the noun Justice as opposed to the person(s)
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Consumer Affairs in Barbados is something like “the price is right” all you have to do is bring “something to the table” and I did not say “leave something undert the table” and everything is taken care of. Certainly that did not happen with the telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless then Bartel then LIME now SLIME and that wont happen with this SOL BNTCL monopoly either. Leh we wuk up and have a good time….
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@ Neil Holder
There is a cardinal Sin here on BU which you and David Come Sing Along and Adrian Loverige seem disposed to do all the time.
You will come and post an article and lef um for we bajans to jes ammmmmm masturbate over while wunna goes off to do what? none of us knows.
But, one thing that you will learn here on BU is that people want to “see” the owners of the article and to interact with wunna to find out if wunna is for real or jes jerking us around.
Another thing my man
Why put up three articles?
All of them are dealing with the same thing which is the BNTCL SOL Monopoly issue
Why 3 articles?
The Honourable Blogmaster would easily have agreed to condense your “Letter to the FTC” the “Response from the (waste foop) CEO” which has an embedded pixel for tracking and those other looping videos in one article.
Wunna does do these outreaches to the public completely wrong and dilute the impact of what you do so easily.
This is an important issue and should not be diluted with these 3 things like this or you will arrive at a situation where one of the “articles” does not get one hit.
Plussing de ole man ent even know where to write my stupidness
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@PUDRYR
Agree with you interaction with the players to properly assess their message is ideal. The other part of your comment there is merit in SEO optimization with multiple permalinks on an issue -at times.
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@ THe Honourable Blogmaster
Your response is why I pray that you continue in the Vein of the Virtual Transparency International irrespective of the outcome of this DLP/BLP debacle
You know what the 40% of the problem with Barbados is?
THey DO NOT HAVE ICT Expertise!
I do not mean programmers and Structured cabling pullers or trained CISCO personnel.
They do not have “Concept Integrators” who can tell them what they have to build and why
Edutech costed US $236 million
THe chinese spent $10 million and gave us 14,000? computers ALL OF WHICH HAVE A CHIP in the Hardware between the keyboard at the Hardware Abstraction Layer that keylogs all of the entries for all of us ingrunt Bajans to use.
So tell de ole man gout trojan horses
Tell me something, in your “interactions” David do you hear them talking about “what it will take?”
When you examine the grey matter of their chief ICT advisor, you see the paucity of his representations and you understand what that bodes for our ICT initiatives?
All of them, INCLUDING MUGABE, only know how to use computers as sophisticated typewriters or machines to keylog or remote screen shot BUT, even armed with the content of a man’s hard drive(s) which of them has impressed you that they “KNOW” what to do with it?
Steupseee you see why I does feel like leffing de damn place?
You does interact wid dem, tell de ole man ef i lie in my summarization!
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@PUDRYR
To summarize your concern there is merit to those o us who are disappointed in 2017 given our Internet penetration and decent supporting infrastructure why we have not been able to build robust enterprise databases in the public sector, e-government structure to support informational and transactional etc. The Permanent Secretary responsible for projects has been ensconced for many years and yet he appears to be incompetent OR frustrated by the system to achieve.
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@ The Honourable Blogmaster
I am not sure as to which specific one you are referring but i will respectfully suggest that the ministries names i lists below, should, based on the very nature of their mandates and responsibility, should all be collaborating.
At least these.
The Ministry responsible for Business, both Local and International Business Commerce and Trade, the one that manages Data Processing, the Government Information Services, the Office of the Prime Minister these more than all the rest should be part of a real-time Groupware Solution that permits them to communicate and collaborate seamlessly.
THe Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Embassies and Consulates currently led by Airbourne Airhead Maxine MacClean should be in immediate contact with CORPAI and be able to facilitate the immediate needs of the FDI community.
If it is Bentley of whom you speak, he is a well meaning honourable man but, and this is to be frank, is birthed of an age where cablegrams were the cutting edge products of that day.
We need to understand that we are in 2017 and if you cannot grasp the nuances of the sectors that you manage it is time to demit office or get out the effing kitchen and allow people who can to do so.
Do not get me wrong.
The man is a gentleman but we are not hiring people for personalities we need deliverables and the current doldrums that we find ourselves in prove this to be so
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@PUDRYR
The reference made was to PS Alyson Forte.
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De ole man went searching for Mr. Forte and came across this under a WAN initiative between the GoB and Digicel
“Stressing the benefits of the new network, Forte added that it would also create an opportunity for the rationalization of Government’s current data and voice networks.
“The network is also expected to provide, among other things, high-speed inter-agency connections for greater communication and service delivery efficiencies; internet gateway for Government, which is secure and cost effective; extensive utilization of IP telephony with resultant cost savings; [and] provision of new secure modes of communication between government and citizens,” said Forte.
In addition, he said the network should result in “reduced operational cost” through standardization and economies of scale, easier sharing and dissemination of information among all stakeholders, as well as the facilitation of the deployment of enterprise-wide applications and services, which enable improved and re-engineered Government operations such as budgeting, financial management, human resource management, payroll and procurement”.
Well do ole man will only impute from your 8 word sentence that ammmmmmm yours is a “no confidence” motion like the one dat one of her employeees said that she should follow her “March to Distress” sorry “March of Distrust” sorry I ent get the name right but he said she should follow it with a no confidence motion.
But let me zoom in on this remark if i may.
“is also expected to provide>high-speed inter-agency connections>greater communication and service delivery efficiencies>internet gateway for Government,>secure and cost effective>extensive utilization of IP telephony>resultant cost savings>provision of new secure modes of communication between government and citizens,”
HAs any one of these deliverables been manifest? according to your sources?
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