For the past two nights, we've been reporting that today's irregular Wednesday House sitting was convened for the almost exclusive purpose of amending the PUC Act - strengthening it to remove Jeffrey Prosser from a position of power on BTL'S Board of Directors. That's the bill that was introduced by the new Minister of Public Utilities Ralph Fonseca today.
It's called the PUC Amendment Bill and it seeks to remove what the legal draftsmen call "the entrenched rights" which are detrimental to the public interest. That "entrenched right" is the special share which was created in fact to protect the public interest in the private BTL as it set out to ensure that no matter who owned BTL - government, as the public's representative would always have two seats on the board.
But, protecting the public was the last thing on government's mind when it sold that special share to Jeffrey Prosser in April of 2004. Now that things have gone crossway with Prosser, government has been demanding that he return the share. But since early this year, he's refused to give it back or to give up the two seats on the board of directors that it assures him. Now the new PUC Amendment will allow the utility regulator to cancel the special share - thus disqualifying two of Prosser's directors from the Board which is presently in a 4 - 4 deadlock.
Introducing the bill this morning, Utilities Minister Fonseca looked right past government's central role in creating the now chaotic telecommunications environment and said that the same government must now act urgently to regain control.
Ralph Fonseca, Minister of Public Utilities
"These same protectionist and well intentioned clauses present a myriad of problems when the market is opened and competition flourishes. Today, like most other nations in the world, we are faced with these realities. If a company has become tied up in various actions to the extent that the regulator cannot clearly determine ownership, directorship, or for that matter even execute an instruction because there is no order in that company, then the regulator cannot perform its function. Therefore then the Minister responsible, after consultation, must also have the ability to establish order by removing any entrenched right or make the necessary declaration to confer matters and restore order."
It is expected that government will now move fairly quickly to revoke the special share from Jeffrey Prosser and ICC which would leave two of his directors without any standing on the board.
