But while the company is expecting a growth in profits for this financial year which soon finishes, they still have a major headache to deal with. They have come clean to the shareholders that a segment of Belizean customers owe them a total of 44 million dollars in arrears that they are trying to collect. Under the previous Board, there was series of moves to change the company's billing processes, and it appears that the roll-out of their new systems did not go according to plan. And so, some customers weren't obliged to pay for services already rendered. On Saturday afternoon, in a virtual interview after the AGM, Chairman Lizarraga explained what occurred some 2 to 3 years ago:
Markhelm Lizarraga
"BTL embarked on an exercise to consolidate its collection software, its billing software into one, they had several and they wanted to put it into one system and when that was commissioned it was commissioned with a clear roadmap and clear plan and the plan changed and certain upgrades were offered in this period of transitioning and it complicated matters and a series of decisions eventually led to the collapse of this plan. The end net effect was that BTL found itself in a position where it could not disconnect people who had not paid. Subsequent to that, the decision was made not to collect from people and that decision carried forward until we are here where BTL has some 40 million dollars in receivables accumulated over the last 3 years. BTL has been working with its clients and we've put a lot of these people on payment plan and we are in the process of continuing to work on this system so that we are in a position to clearly tell people look here is the bill for this month, at least take care of the bill for this month and make plans to pay the outstanding arrears."
The chairman says that some of the customers are cooperating by agreeing to payment plans.
