‘Not enough’

For the second time in less than a week Senior Minister Dr William Duguid has publicly chastised the Barbados Light & Power Company (BL&P).

This time around the Government Member of Parliament chided the BL&P for only “giving back” $4 million in the last 10 years, describing it as insufficient for a company that has earned “hundreds of millions of dollars” from Barbadians.

Last Wednesday, the Senior Minister with responsibility for coordinating infrastructural projects, lambasted the BL&P for not upgrading its electrical poles, something which he said would have made the island’s electricity infrastructure more resilient in a natural disaster.

He accused the company of lacking foresight and focusing on its bottomline above all else.

However, while speaking in Parliament on Tuesday during debate on the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) Plan 2022, Dr Duguid revealed that he had received a letter from the BL&P in response to those accusations.

He said the BL&P contended it had lived up to its corporate responsibility to Barbados by donating money and equipment to the tune of $4 million, dating back to 2012.

But in a stinging rebuttal, Dr Duguid said that amount of money was paltry compared to the BL&P’s profits.

“In 2013 they gave $145 000 to purchase beds at the QEH [Queen Elizabeth Hospital]. They did some other things in offering COVID support in donations for $250 000; they had funding for $200 000 for tourism development and they donated some hand radios to a few people in the DEM [Department of Emergency Management], for a total of $4 million in corporate social responsibility in 10 years. But that can’t be right. They musse forget a nought,” Dr Duguid stated.

“It can’t be $4 million in 10 years. A company that makes hundreds of millions of dollars, to the point that they can pay dividends of $100 million to their entity as was reported in the press, and in 10 years could only give $4 million to the people of this country, $400 000 a year.

“This is their letter. It isn’t anything that I make up. It’s something that they sent to me, to curse me about what I said was absolutely correct that they were not good corporate citizens. For them to have to go back to giving $145 000 in beds in 2013, well that is ridiculous.

“I will not resile from what I am saying in this Honourable House. A company that is a monopoly has a social responsibility to the people of this country. Yes, they gave COVID support, I thank you for that. Yes they gave some hand radios, I thank you for that. Yes they gave some funding [of] $200 000 towards development, I thank you for that.

“But it is not enough and we need more because all of the money that the BL&P makes is the money from the people of this country and they have to be prepared to give back to the people of this country and I done wid that,” Dr Duguid said.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb