Gov't buckling to concerns over proposed Wartsila agreement
This follows a public outcry from BVIEC workers and other concerned residents over the proposed agreement, which they slammed as being unnecessary and too costly for the territory. BVIEC workers had also expressed fear of losing their jobs.
However, in an exclusive interview with this news site on Friday March 18, 2016, the Minister said the cost of the proposed contract will be about $4 million per annum for a proposed period of five years.
The Minister said the cost of the contract and the length of time for its execution are too great for the territory and it is unlikely that it will be accepted.
In addition, Minister Vanterpool said he has hearkened to the concerns of the workers of the BVI Electricity Corporation who believe that the corporation cannot afford what is being proposed and that it would be to the detriment of the workers.
According to the Minister, he is supposed to have a meeting with staff today March 21, 2016 with a view to further discussing their concerns and charting a way forward.
“There is no agreement. I want to make that very clear. There is a proposed agreement and I have made it clear to the electricity corporation that I am not happy with it,” he said.
“There are a couple of things that we are not happy with...one is that the contract is too long (five years), secondly we don’t think we need such a contract for the transfer of knowledge to the local workers and thirdly the contract is too costly,” he said.
Returns minimal
The Minister said that it would not be a prudent decision to embark on the contract as is since the promised returns seem to be miniscule in relation to the monies to be spent.
“My group has analysed it since I had indicated to the board of the BVI Electricity Corporation, it’s Chairman and it’s General Manager since late last year that I was not going to support them signing it. And then the employees are quite right in a number of issues that they have raised to me, especially the transfer of knowledge.”
The Minister said that instead of five years, a more workable period might be one year. He said too that the arrangement seemed to be designed to allow a large number of persons coming from Wartsila. He said that while it will be useful to have Wartsila here when the generating units are being put to work, it does not require such a large influx of staff from the generator manufacturer.
According to the Minister, the staff had concerns that their jobs were being threatened by the proposed agreement. He said he assured the workers that nothing would be signed until the government was happy from their side and the employees had some level of comfort regarding the concerns that they had.
He said that the new Wartsila engines would not be so complicated for the local persons to learn as they have been working with the Wartsila units that had been purchased and in operation for some years before.
There must be changes
The Minister said Wartsila will have to make changes to the proposed agreement if there is to be any hope of government supporting it.
“The way I see it is that the board will take all these views into consideration and go back to Wartsila with some adjusted proposed contract...perhaps maybe along the lines that I suggested...maybe a year, with some reduction in the number of persons they are bringing,” he said.
Nothing signed
It was reported in another section of the local media on March 8, 2016 that workers of the BVIEC were “up in arms about reports of a foreign company with an initial 11-member team to "co-operate" the Pockwood Pond Plant and that this was expected to cost Government millions.
Efforts to seek clarification from General Manager of the BVIEC Leroy A. E. Abraham proved futile.
However, when we called Minister Vanterpool, he offered a clarification, saying that nothing was signed with the foreign company, whom he said was Wartsila, the supplier for the power generators.
“Nothing has been completed but there is a discussion with the company that has provided the generators - Wartsila. [It will entail that assisting, not running the plant but assisting the corporation by training the local operators.”
He said the arrangement will be a temporary one until the knowledge is transferred to the local staff.
The Minister confirmed that the management of the BVIEC has been discussing the issue with the workers.
“No one will lose their jobs. The company will be on a mission of training so that they could manage the new equipment that is coming in. So there should be no fear absolutely,” said the Minister.
Honourable Vanterpool added that while he was not sure of the timeline he did not believe it would be very long before it is implemented. He said negotiations would continue between Wartsila and the management of the BVIEC over the next couple of weeks.
About Wartsila
According to research, Wartsila is a Finnish corporation which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. As of 2014 the company employed close to 18,000 workers in more than 70 countries and it is headquartered in Helsinki.
Wartsila has three main businesses; Power Plants focussing on the energy market, Ship Power focussing on the marine market and Services which is supporting both markets.
22 Responses to “Gov't buckling to concerns over proposed Wartsila agreement”
Without proper training and QUALIFIED technicians who have a clue what they are doing, we will be buying new engines AGAIN in another few years, and the same talking heads will claim that the Wartsila engines were faulty or were not up to our standards. Same old, same old. So tired of this.
If the BVIEC staff haven't learned to run them properly, (since they are using Wartsila engines now) WHEN do you think they will learn? A year is no time at all.
If you can't afford to do something right, why do it at all? Government should release the death grip they have on our power supply and privatize the electricity corporation. Maybe THEN we would finally be provided a reliable power source!
Residents have to continuously buy the same appliances, large and small, over and over because the electricity supply is always destroying what people got already. But who cares?
The fear of Gov not doing things right scares the whole country , cause those boys HAVE NOT delivered Government in the sunshine as promised .To privatize under NDP is "SCARY" Mary , cause a lot of us invested in CCT and returns have been disappointing .If our leaders would be a little LESS greedy maybe; privatization may be the way to go ; BUT look at what HE tried with "bi water" . I think we are between A ROCK and A HARD PLACE . The bvi ---ked!
jus sayn
The only difference affected is there is a lot of undercover drug users in your back yard. Your Island is full of drug users, pill poppers just like the US. When you take pills from the Doctor or buy over the counter pills for pain, if you don't know, that is a form of drug too. Your backyard is not that pristeen. You bought up the subject about drugs not me.
Additionally, the engines should come with maintenance and operations computer software and hardware, along with other training media, eg, maintenance manuals, CDs,.....etc. By chance training was not included in the base contract price, the procured cost of training should be fair and reasonable. At most, training should be up to a year. Further, $4M per year for 5 years appear too pricy and too lengthy. A more economical agreement needs to be negotiated. It must be a win-win for BVIEC customers. In any event, local operations workers need training and retraining to attain efficiency of engines, achieve equipment reliability, achieve service stability, reduce current operating and lifecycle cost, extend equipment life, retard equipment deterioration.......etc.
One Love!