Lyn Young
While the poverty stricken squatters are demanding alternative land or housing from the government, surprisingly, a large corporation is also calling on the government to help with its financial condition. Belize Electricity Limited is facing the possibility of countrywide blackouts. This morning's blackout that hit the nation, however, was due to birds that built nests in BEL's equipment. During the removal of the nest, a faulty breaker tripped causing the blackout. That breaker was immediately replaced and power was restored before midday. Though the power is on tonight, the company is in grave financial trouble. It owes millions to creditors and its primary supplier of power, Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) of Mexico, may cut power to Belize in two weeks. News Five spoke this afternoon to BEL's CEO, Lynn Young, who says the government and the Public Utilities Commission have an important stake in the state of affairs of BEL.
Jose Sanchez
"If you can't extend your letter of credit, if you can't get the cash, what is going to happen? How soon should we see the effect?"
Lynn Young, CEO, B.E.L.
"I don't think the government will allow that to happen, but at the end of the day, we all have to be responsible about the electrical supply to the country. I can't imagine rolling blackouts with crime situation as it is in Belize City, not to mention the effect on the economy-we just can't have that. So quite frankly, if we don't pay CFE they will cut us off. If they cut us off, we don't have enough water to carry the country for more than five or six days. So there will be rolling blackouts."
Jose Sanchez
"When is the deadline for this CFE payment?"
Lynn Young
"Well it's everyday we have to keep paying to stay below the credit limit and the last payment we made to them gave us about ten to twelve days of credit. So we're gonna have to make another payment soon, but this is a bad month for us. We have the debenture interests payments at the end of the month, and of course we have other suppliers too. We are behind on Belcogen which is from the bagass plant and we are very much behind on BECOL also. We owe BECOL something around twelve million dollars also."
Jose Sanchez
"So how soon can we start seeing blackouts if it happens?"
Lynn Young
"Well within the next ten days, if we don't find the money to make another payment to CFE, we will have blackouts."
Jose Sanchez
"So at this point you're just waiting for the government to step in?"
Lynn Young
"We are talking to the banks too. We have sent letter to the C.D.B. before to ask for waivers and we are sending again. We've asked Scotia to reconsider their position also because we had a line of credit with Scotia, but their head office is saying no they cannot extend any more credit to us until regulations are resolved because ultimately for an electric utility, our ability to pay these loans depend on the actions of the PUC and what they have been doing so far is basically sending a signal to the financial institutions that we are not credit worthy. The banks are saying that they won't advance money to us unless they have a guarantee from Fortis or the government. Fortis isn't going do it. So that is why we are trying to get the government to help. We are now in court. And while we think we are going to win the case eventually because what the PUC did is definitely not acceptable in any sensible jurisdiction. Even if we were to win the case, it seems to be that the PUC seems obsessed with bringing down the company. I hate to say that but that's the only conclusion I can come to."
Jose Sanchez
"Now that you brought that, I read an article that the government could take over, for a short period of time, BEL."
Lynn Young
"I remember shortly after Minister Hulse was appointed and he was interviewed on KREM and he said that as far as he is concerned BEL should not have been privatized and he wants it back. In one of my meetings with the Public Utilities Commission, one of the commissioners told me they want the government to get back the company. And I said well, talk to Fortis-tell them you want to buy it back. He said quite frankly to me, if the PUC forces BEL to lose money then Fortis will have to sell cheap. So quite frankly I'm not surprise. Now in my personal conversations with the Prime Minsiter, he has told me that he has no interests in taking back BEL, but I know the former Minister of Public Utilities and the chairman of the PUC and Mister Vasquez at the time he was there-they all told me quite frankly that they are not happy with the fact that BEL is not owned by the government and they want it. So maybe, my only conclusion is that that is the ultimate objective. It is far more expensive for the country not to have electricity than for us to try to adjust the rates to make it sensible. Now we don't want to see the rates go up, nobody wants to see the rates go up, but it's worse if we can't pay the bills and I don't see it sustainable for the government to keep doing the things it's doing to keep BEL floating."
Channel5
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