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PLP owes ZNS $236K By CANDIA DAMES ~ Guardian News Editor ~ candia@nasguard.com: The Progressive Liberal Party owes the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas $236,318.96 and PLP officials have reportedly been informed by BCB executives that the only way they can advertise on any ZNS station is if they pay upfront. General Manager of the Broadcasting Corporation Edwin Lightbourn told The Nassau Guardian the political party had not made a payment on this bill since losing the government in 2007. The debt was reportedly incurred by the PLP between 2002 and 2007. "The PLP account remains outstanding. A substantial amount is owed," Lightbourn said. "We're disappointed no effort has been made to pay. "We'd certainly like to be paid. We have to pay our staff." Lightbourn said the PLP's bill makes up a "substantial portion" of the corporation's receivables. He said collecting receivables is "vital to any business." The corporation continues to depend on a government subsidy to help cover its operations. Lightbourn said he wrote letters to every PLP chairman since 2007 on the matter. The most recent letter, he confirmed, was written to current PLP chairman Bradley Roberts on December 4, 2009. The BCB general manager said no chairman has even dignified his letters with a response. Lightbourn spoke to The Guardian after he was contacted to confirm whether reports of the outstanding debt were accurate. He also confirmed that the Free National Movement's account with BCB is current. FNM chairman Carl Bethel said yesterday the party does its best to pay its bills. Under the former administration, general campaign rallies were carried live and some observers had accused the PLP of abusing BCB. Then prime minister Perry Christie had also made a number of announcements on live TV, cutting into the ZNS evening news. These announcements would not have been charged to the PLP's account as they were made in Christie's capacity as prime minister. The PLP's outstanding bill with ZNS remains even as the party funds its current campaign in Elizabeth. Asked yesterday why the party has not responded to BCB letters about the existing debt, Roberts told The Guardian he is in the process of writing Lightbourn on the matter. He said this is not the only bill the PLP has outstanding. "And I believe the Free National Movement probably owes some bills that they have not addressed as well too," Roberts said. Asked whether the PLP was finding it difficult to pay the ZNS bill, Roberts said, "Nothing is difficult, nothing is impossible once one applies one's heart and mind to something." But Roberts - who has been chairman of the PLP for three months - said the party simply does not have the money to settle the ZNS bill at this time. He added, "I know that there has been a downturn in the economy, that people have been unemployed and the party has been helping some of its supporters who have financial difficulties and so forth, and they may have been giving preference to assisting supporters and other people who are in need." The PLP chairman said in the context of what the party owes, the $236,000 is not a lot of money. "It isn't the largest amount of money that the party owes," Roberts said. "If the party had the funds, we would have paid it a long time ago." A good portion of the money political parties spend during election campaigns goes toward funding political advertisements. Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said recently that parties are already spending too much money on elections. "And it would not be in the public interest nor in the interest of democracy to allow out-of-control spending in political broadcasting," he said. Ingraham was speaking in the context of the Utilities Regulations and Competition Authority controversy involving its broadcast rules, which Opposition leader Perry Christie has said the PLP will not be following. However, the PLP's campaign coordinator for the Elizabeth by-election Dr. Bernard Nottage yesterday demanded that the BCB provide the opposition with fair treatment under the URCA code, even though the PLP has condemned the code as being unconstitutional. Monday February 08, 2010