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If the omnipresent Prime Minister Mia Mottley is being frustrated by a moribund FTC to execute its job, what recourse is there for ‘lowly’ citizens.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley

Many Barbadians – we hope – have been following the protracted hearing to determine a rate application request by the Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) being adjudicated by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC). The blogmaster has a healthy respect for the intervenors representing the interest of citizens who despite being under-resourced have been putting in the work. However, it must be stated the review process smacks of being ultra-bureaucratic at a time timely decision making is required to move the country forward. The government it appears has created a monster.

The BL&P’s legal team has challenged the FTC’s decision issue earlier in February 2023. It is of interest based on the argument the FTC acted ultra vires. If the FTC Commissioners are forced to vary its earlier decision, there is a simple task for all members to perform – resign!

… to safeguard the interests of consumers, to regulate utility services supplied by service
providers, to monitor and investigate the conduct of service providers and business enterprises,
to promote and maintain effective competition in the economy and for related matters.

2020 FTC Annual Report

Given the implications of the FTC’s decision for Barbadians and the economy, one assumed there would have been a thorough deliberation by the Commissioners to preempt the need for the abbreviated 3-day hearing which concluded today.

Although the process of a utility rate hearing is highly technical, the FTC was established to ensure all actors involved operate in a fair conditions supported with the required in house skill sets. The protracted nature of the hearing in a volatile economic environment does not adhere to the FTC’s mandate. Prime Minister Mia Mottley has publicly stated her frustration at the delay while delivering the Budget in March this year. She indicated that the government was prepared to amend the legislation to prevent the kind of delays currently being experienced.

We cannot permit the transformation . . . of this country to be hampered by a tiresome cat and mouse game between the Barbados Light and Power and the Fair Trading Commission. Bajans cannot be the losers in this game, and this is what will happen if the cat and mouse game does not stop.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley

If the omnipresent Prime Minister Mia Mottley is being frustrated by a moribund FTC to execute its job, what recourse is there for ‘lowly’ citizens who daily complain about a myriad of abuses by the utilities/telcoms.

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20 responses to “PM Mottley is frustrated”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    It was not that long ago the talk of the country was BL&P plan to kill ‘we’. Months later Barbadians have moved on.

  2. Bush tea Avatar
    Bush tea

    Boss…
    What else can be expected from the ‘walking dead’?

    Bushie asked you HUMBLY to point out just TWO positive things that DOES NOT include wukking up – and you keep us busy with doom and gloom – FROM THE DAILY NEWS HEADLINES.

    The FTC is clearly incompetent.
    But it is Mottley who hand picked them and who appointed them.
    So when she fires them or they resign – who can she blame?
    …and
    Why would THEY resign? …when Symmonds and Abrahams got promoted from the mess? (some say AFTER creating the mess)

    How are the FTC’s failings any worse than the NIS / The Radical shiite/ The Steal Houses/ White Oak/ the LGBT School Survey, or the litany of fowl-ups from this government?

    The FTC pack are clearly out of their depth, but shiite Boss… this seems to be par for the BB course…

    Meanwhile it looks like the Emera pirates have been making a killing off our brass bowl backs – that is, if what Bushie understands about this $100 million heist is true…

    Why can’t we ask Ms Watson for an intervenor’s report?

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    The lawyer for BL&P stated it is company profits the company took.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    PM calls out BLPC, FTC

    Article by Barbados Today Published on
    March 16, 2023

    Prime Minister Mia Mottley has made it clear that she will not allow Barbadians to become “tenants in their own land”, as she accused the island’s sole electricity utility company and the regulator of engaging in a “cat and mouse game”.
    In fact, delivering her approximately four-hour Budget in Parliament on Tuesday evening, Mottley said her administration was prepared to take action by way of changes to existing legislation to ensure more timely decision-making.
    She said Government was still keen on achieving the island’s ambitious renewable energy target of 100 per cent reliance on renewable forms of energy by 2030 despite the constraints, including being able to access electric vehicles and batteries for electricity storage.
    “We cannot permit the transformation . . . of this country to be hampered by a tiresome cat and mouse game between the Barbados Light and Power and the Fair Trading Commission. Bajans cannot be the losers in this game, and this is what will happen if the cat and mouse game does not stop,” said Mottley.
    She suggested that the Barbados Light & Power Company (BLPC), which is seeking approval for an 11.9 per cent rate increase from the Fair Trading Commission (FTC), was delaying getting some products into the island. She chastised the FTC for taking too long to make decisions.
    “After 100 years, the Barbados Light & Power as a monopoly provider should know that it has to trust this country and its people a little more and does not need to delay the procurement of things in a difficult supply chain environment such that when we resolve the issues you can’t even find the things to buy for under two, three or four years,” said Mottley.
    “Similarly, the Fair Trading Commission must understand that delay is the obstacle to progress in this world, especially where commodities are difficult to access,” she said.
    On February 15 of this year, the FTC announced that it had denied a series of the utility company’s requests in its application for a rate increase, which would impact on the final figure.
    The regulator said at the time that it was awaiting more information from the BLPC to determine the final rate, and it had given the company three weeks, which would be followed by a decision two weeks later.
    However, the utility company, which was granted an interim increase of between $1 and $3 per month for domestic customers effective September 16, 2022, has challenged some aspects of the February decision, resulting in a further delay.
    Mottley, while opting not to go into further detail declared: “Suffice it to say, the process needs deconstruction again, and if [it] continues to be the subject of delay, the only losers will be the country and people of Barbados.
    “We don’t produce the materials necessary to participate in most of this. But having said that, we believe we can still set the ambitious targets and we intend to meet our policy objectives. We have to create space to encourage investment by foreign service providers because all can’t come from locals,” said Mottley.
    “Similarly, we have to ensure that the price of electricity doesn’t go too far out of whack so that it is uncompetitive . . . If we wanted the cheapest electricity rate we would offer it to a single provider because of how small we are, and probably foreign capital that is achieved at a far cheaper price than what we might have achieved locally, but what we want is balanced development because Bajans cannot be tenants in their own land,” said Mottley.
    She said she accepted that the electricity rate may have to be increased given the increase in the number of people selling power to the national grid.
    She promised that her administration would “manage, on a very granular basis”, the connection of renewable energy systems to the grid, as she suggested that this process was still taking too long.
    (MM)


    Source: BT

  5. David Avatar
    David

    Longer rate wait

    BARBADIANS HAVE TO WAIT longer for certainty on the electricity rates they will have to pay the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BL& P).
    The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) hearing on BL& P’s motion to review and vary its February 15 rate application decision concluded a day ahead of schedule yesterday with no indication on how soon a ruling will come.
    Before adjourning proceedings at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, hearing chairman Dr Donley Carrington said “the whole record” of BL& P’s application will be considered and a decision forthcoming “at some time in the future”.
    This was after he and other commissioners on the five-member FTC panel questioned BL& P lead counsel Ramon Alleyne, KC, on aspects of his submissions.
    “I believe we would have sought some areas of clarification and we will now consider the whole record to make our determination. We would report our decision based on the whole record,” Carrington said, stressing that any information not relevant to the motion “would not be considered”.
    “We will now adjourn to consider all of the information that is properly before us, the whole record, and we will make our determination. We will issue a decision at some time in the future, having considered the record,” he added.
    The hearing was scheduled to be completed today, but ended about halfway through yesterday’s sitting, during which Alleyne finished presenting BL& P’s case for a reversal of some sections of the FTC electricity rate application decision.
    Before a break in the morning session, the senior lawyer used his 45-minute allotment to respond to statements made by intervenors, and restated BL& P’s position on several matters, including the self-insurance fund.
    At one point during his presentation, where he was speaking about how the FTC should adjudicate some financial matters related to BL& P, intervenor attorney Tricia Watson interjected that Alleyne was “seeking to introduce evidence, seeking to re-argue the case [with] new concepts that he’s introducing into an evidentiary process that has been completed.
    “The applicant has had two years to put these arguments before the commission and I would ask the panel to direct counsel not to attempt to give evidence on behalf of the applicant. He’s done this several times during this process and he needs to be stopped,” Watson said.
    Confident
    Carrington responded: “We just would want to caution you as we acknowledge that any information presented this morning that was not part of the original, it will not be taken into account.”
    Alleyne said afterwards he was “confident that you will find every reference in the original” application.
    The counsel told the FTC panel that he presented “some real world consequences” which required the regulator “to act, review, reconsider and vary its decision – do what it’s obliged to do in fairly balancing consumer and utility interests in the pursuit of a fair and reasonable rate.
    “The applicant recognises that, as a regulated entity, it does not have the luxury of random unilateral increases to meet its operations and reasonable profit requirements. Yet fair is fair. Just as the applicant is bound by its legislative obligations, so too is the commission,” Alleyne said.
    “When assessing the applicant’s motion, the commission must stay within its legislative confines and that is a major element of the complaint within the motion. The grounds for review and legal arguments made in its review are all buttressed by established regulatory principles. I do believe we are the sole party here to make an effort to repeatedly link its arguments to regulatory principles.
    “We respectfully submit that there has been no evidence or legal argument raised by any intervener which contradicts this assertion. We humbly request that the commission review its findings and varies its order as requested in the notice of motion,” he urged. (SC)


    Source: Nation

  6. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    Wily needs BL&P (EMERA) to get this increase so that his STOCK value and dividends increase. Barbados Government sold BL&P a few years ago and spent the best part of two years bragging about what a good deal they made during the sale. Basic infrastructure should never be privatized, period. GOOD DEAL is coming back to haunt the government and BL&P(EMERA) are holding all the cards. Barbados government could re nationalize BL&P, however at what $ cost and then there’s the lack of ability/knowledge/expertise etc to operate the system.

    Just another example of Barbados batting above its weight class, TURD WORLD RULES, ha, ha.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Wily

    Barbados and the Bahamas should feel fortunate to be owned by a Canadian best in class energy company. We get to benefit from the latest innovations. All we need is for the regulator to do its job efficiently!

  8. robert amar Avatar
    robert amar

    Looks like some of the Caribbean Leaders have the same plan for increasing the cost of power is it by design or just cosmic intervention.

  9. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    @ DAVID

    “We get to benefit from the latest innovations. All we need is for the regulator to do its job efficiently!”

    Bajans would like to think this is correct, however Government interference in “Normal” corporate business operations that remotely interfere with the company’s day to day operations will have negative impacts on any “benefits” & “Innovations” that maybe/might be forthcoming.

    Barbados typical government interference/corruption and unwarranted demands that limit or inhibit “normal” business practices will no doubt result in less than desirable client/customer relations and expectations.

  10. Get Up Stand Up, Stand Tall Avatar
    Get Up Stand Up, Stand Tall

    Before there is a protest and change there is a preamble or a build up.
    Barbados Underground is a part of this preamble or build up.

    Make A Stand
    Get Up Stand Up, Stand Tall
    Up! Up! Up!

  11. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Frustration?

    Fuel or electricity prices are one facet of a global hybrid warfare conducted by the Devil.

    Just returned from a Central Asian country where it costed less than the equivalent of two USD to fill a tank with LNG.

    There are many other countries not under the heel of the Devil with cheap fuel. And nothing developmental will happen in Barbados unless the country has access to cheap fuel and electricity, as standard!

    The cartels running these oil majors have been highly successful, like the CIA NGOs in diverting the social and political systems to waste human energy on foolishness. FTCs and the like.

    All kind of do-nothing, artificial structures, which following the idiocy of the services economy add nothing but bureaucracy and some unproductive jobs to the system.

    Frustrated.

    No, Mottley likes it so. These same misdirections by the Devil are not unlike the hybrid war Mottley is central to against the people of Haiti.

    A hybrid warfare which has this wokeist prime minister supporting fascists in Ukraine.

    Yes, frustration is central to wickedness. And rightly so!

  12. Quality Weed (Remix) Avatar
    Quality Weed (Remix)

    One of the most fundamental laws of music production is the remix version should be better, different and the same as an original version to do it full justice. It is about time that the Jobsworth Commissioner Geezer in Government of BarBados issued another rehashed update statement to the media of why the progress to the industrialisation of the freeing of the weed proceedings is so painful and slow, although as a disclaimer notice, admittedly I am not savvy to the word on the streets in Bridgetown and out in country. If BDP do not get their act together forthwith PDC will win the next election to back way with Income Tax and forward towards Jah Orthodox.
    You mark my words now prophecy is as easy as a b c 1 2 3 doh ray mi.
    As another roots and culture prophet from jamdown said
    “herb is the healing of the nation and alcohol is it’s destruction”.
    Those Bajuns drink too much white rum and tumble down.
    If the boys and girls in the politics industry want subject matter experts in the pot industry to win the ph wars they should collaborate with High Times magazine and research the hows of the growth of good shit.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    https://barbadosunderground.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/nis-march.jpg

  14. Yolande Grant - African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All RightsReserved. Avatar
    Yolande Grant – African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All RightsReserved.

    The problem with these fly by night wannabes, they dont know hiw to do anything abive biardwith ethics and without the stench of friendism and nepotism….

    I just heard an 8:30 sec audio with Walter Blackman on brass tracks giving a list of names of economists in Barbados with first class honors from UWI…taxpayer aid education….that all of them enjoyed……..but, who have been overlooked in favor of a questionable self proclaimed professor of no intellectaully recognized standing for some special envoy post of 40k per month….

    ..of. course it’s well known about the maybe close friendship from school days of these two from the taxpayer paid parliament…which should not be a part of the taxpayers payroll just because of illegitimate personal ties….that’s the problem with wannabes, they believe the taxes, vat and pension money is theirs to do as they please and dish out ridiculous salaries .

  15. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    @ Yolande Grant – African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All RightsReserved. on

    Are you referencing the British Indian who was hand picked by Mia, or Rasputin or Mia’s shadow?

    Which one?

    It did not work out well for our South African friends when they befriended 3 Indian brothers. They ended up running the government. I heard they are now residing in the UAE.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @TLSN

    Please take your racist innuendo outside.

  17. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    Pachamama, made an interesting point about the low cost of fuel in a South Asia country. He extrapolated that high fuel costs will stunt the development of Barbados.

    I wonder if people are aware of the appalling high cost of living endured by their fellow Barbadians.

    This is the negative effect of having an economy built almost exclusively on tourism. It leaves Barbadians badly exposed.

    How is possible for a developing and a non-industrial small island caribbean state to be ranked 7th highest in the cost of living table.

    https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp

  18. David Avatar
    David

    @TLSN

    It is about Barbados being a net importer. An economy where we import a significant amount of what we consume. Successive governments are comfortable with the model and by extension the people continue to passively accept this lazy approach to governing the country.

  19. Yolande Grant - African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    Yolande Grant – African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All Rights Reserved

    “Are you referencing the British Indian who was hand picked by Mia, or Rasputin or Mia’s shadow?

    Which one?”

    Same one, at least he looks like indian ancestry to me, dont know if they have since changed the definition of indian, so much is happening these days, who knows…am trying less and less to keep up…clearing my head from all the crazy happenings……

  20. Yolande Grant - African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All Rights Reserved. Avatar
    Yolande Grant – African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All Rights Reserved.

    Yolande Grant – African Online Publishing Copyright (c) 2023. All Rights Reserved. September 2, 2023. @7:49 AM

    This is all the fake worker’s unions in Barbados do, cozy up to human rights violating employers, take bribes and never represent workers rights, in all my years of watching they are just as useless as those in the parliament.

    ….and we can say with conviction that only one union ever put in the effort to represent the best interests of the nurses, that’s the one the lawless government and their imps and pimps demonize the most..

    ..more than likely the same do nothing BWU, where the current head is doing their conflict of interest stint in the parliament as an MP or some such blight…

    ” BWU officials criticised over handling of dismissed worker’s case – by Barbados Today September 1, 2023

    The lack of action by Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) personnel nine years ago sparked criticism by the Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT) on Thursday as the arbitration body threw out an unfair dismissal complaint filed by a former employee of Standards Distribution and Sales Inc.

    Deputy Chairman of the ERT Kathy Hamblin said that the union had failed to act in a timely manner in seeking redress for Keith Alleyne almost a decade ago, even though he was depending on its representation.

    In the end, though, she said the late filing of the appliance service technician’s complaint and the non-submission of relevant documents as he waited on his union to fight on his behalf, had resulted in his case of unfair dismissal case being thrown out.”

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