With the government of Dominica having absolute control of the Dominica Electricity Company (DOMLEC) -its operations and finances, DOMLEC is in fact the people’s company and we the people have the right to know what is happening with our company.

We do have some more information to reveal some of which should have the people demanding the dissolution of the Independent Regulatory Commission and the resignation of the Roosevelt Skerrit administration.  

The people have the right to know that much like the government operated Petro Caribe program DOMLEC’s revenues are now being used by the government to facilitate Labor Party political agenda, government expenditures – like NEP wage bills, civil service wages and more.

Last week we revealed information regarding the government overtures to the former Kempinski Hotel to assist with the load shedding program and we also revealed that the Generator that the government was bragging about donating to DOMLEC was really a generator from the Windsor Park stadium.

A little more about this Windsor Park generator – In his press briefing last week, PM Skerrit stated that his government had assign this generator to DOMLEC  around April of this year. If that was so why then did it take an   electricity crisis in September for DOMLEC to get that generator when the warnings of a depleting generation capacity had been circulating for more than a year.

Our undercover investigations discovered that the Windsor Park generator which is essentially a standby generator could not by itself be integrated into the power generation system. It needed a switchgear for which there was no financing.

Thanks for the creativity, ingenuity and hard work of our local technicians at DOMLEC; in the middle of the crisis they banded together, collected old parts from the company’s yard, refurbished those parts and assembled a fully operable switch gear. Kudos to our technicians at Domlec.

The onsite fabrication and commissioning of a switchgear to activate the Windsor Park generator confirms what many of us have been advocating for for 20 years - genuine opportunities for our craftsmen, technicians, engineers, builders to be part of the nation building process. Even as our homegrown mechanical and electrical technicians at DOMLEC have identified the problem, recommend solutions and are working tirelessly to girder the flailing generator system, paid foreign consultants are being brought in for optics and political showmanship. 

A Paid Foreign Consultant, Venezuelans and Cuban 

According to people familiar with DOMLEC’s operations the political theatrics of ushering foreign consultants to look at a problem long identified and a solution already recommended is unnecessary. The engagement of the St Lucian base consultant Elford Felix AKA “Fix It” has the appearance of friends doing business with Friends. The people should be aware that this paid consultant from St Lucia  Elroy “Fix It “Felix is really a former employee of DOMLEC- A good friend and alleged Freemason colleague of the COO of DOMLEC, Jamaican national, Dave Stamp. Elroy is allegedly retired and is living in Florida.

According to General Manager Bertilia McKenzie “ he(Elroy) is going to undertake the assessment , tell us what he sees and give us recommendations.“ Sources familiar with DOMLEC’s operations are furious and believe that Elroy’s paid consultation gig involves the auditing of the company’s equipment maintenance program -an afront to the hardworking staff  who have given so much to maintain an aged fleet of generators that breaks down on the slightest overage and a hydro electric system hit by severe environmental weather conditions. According to a former employee of DOMLEC who said “Why pay Fix It (Elroy) to report on a problem and to regurgitate solutions already submitted while he was employed as generation manager at DOMLEC. “

Former DOMLEC employees that we have spoken to are also not convinced that the Cuban and Venezuelan consultants are able to help the situation. As they have indicated to us, if a deep overhauling of the generators is chosen over the procurement of new generators, our local technicians are more than capable of self-performing a deep overhauling operation and if so, looking to the Venezuelans or the Cubans to supply the parts required for the overhauling operation would make sense. An experience diesel mechanic that we spoke to seem to think otherwise. He noted that the Venezuelan and Cubans would most like not have the required parts in stock for the DOMLEC generators as they only deal with generators manufactured by the German company MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH whereas the DOMLEC's generators are made by the American manufacturer Caterpillar.

We must also let the people know that at this point DOMLEC /the government have not been very diligent with payments owed to the suppliers of  Caterpillar generator service parts. We can well imagine the cost of maintaining an overaged fleet of generators with regular service calls.     

The IRC -A Commission of Labor Party hacks and Obstructionist

It is widely known in Dominica that the crass and partisan heavy-handed Independent Regulatory Commission (IRC) has impeded DOMLEC’s ability to meet the increasing load demand challenges.  Besides blocking the procurement and installation of new and upgraded generators, the DLP hacks at the IRC have deliberately stalled any effort by DOMLEC to install solar electricity generating systems/solar farms. In fact, MiTC have discovered that DOMLEC possess multiple containers loaded with solar panels, inverters and accessories ready to put into operation, but the IRC will not allow them to proceed.

We have also discovered that atop a DOMLEC building in Fond Cole is a complete solar system installed and the IRC had been preventing DOMLEC from merging this roof top solar system into the grid.

We also discovered that DOMLEC also had an at ground level solar system installed at the Fond Cole yard   but the DLP hacks at the IRC demanded that the system be removed. The IRC claimed that the space should be reserved for HEAR THIS -A Switchgear for the Geothermal Electricity Generating system. At this point it is fair to say that this geothermal electricity generation system will never come to pass- Vince Henderson’s segment of the money laundering DLP crime syndicate.

In addition to the multiple containers of solar farm equipment currently in DOMLEC’s possession MiTC have also discovered that after the Hurricane Maria the government of Dominica itself received donations of solar farm equipment much of which have been squirreled away by Labor Party operatives – some of it sold to willing buyers, some still in containers with lock and keys controlled by the same DLP hyenas.

According to the experts, the solution to the problem at DOMLEC is straightforward. Apart from the low water levels at the hydro-generating plant, new generators or even a deep overhauling of the existing generators would substantively alleviate the problem. In fact, DOMLEC under previous ownership had been faced with load generating capacity issues and in one instance resorted to renting two generators out of Puerto Rico. They eventually returned one of the rented generators and then bought another generator but not without a fight with the Independent Regulatory Commission (IRC).

We now know that the integration of existing solar farm equipment and battery storage into DOMLEC’s operating grid would also help meet the increasing demand. We are further convinced that had it not been for the unwillingness of the DLP government and its band of hacks at the IRC to put away the foolish pride, cut the corruption and severe waste associated with the failed geothermal project, the people of Dominica would not be going through this ongoing electricity crisis.