The ongoing crisis engulfing the Bahamas’ state-owned electricity provider Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) has moved into a new phase, with Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis stepping forward to publicly defend his Energy Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis, who has faced growing criticism for her public silence amid the escalating overtime abuse scandal. Davis asserted clear accountability, stating bluntly that “the bucks stops here” when addressing questions from reporters during a post-school-tour media interaction. The Prime Minister made these remarks alongside Education Minister Chester Cooper, after completing a scheduled visit to several Bahamian schools. Reporters pressed Davis on three key points of public tension: the explosive revelations of inflated overtime claims at BPL, the work-to-rule industrial action launched by the utility’s two major unions, and the conspicuous lack of public comment from Coleby-Davis, the cabinet member directly overseeing the power provider. When asked repeatedly about the minister’s absence from public debate on the scandal, Davis repeated his accountability line, declining to elaborate further on his minister’s silence. Davis also refused to answer questions about whether senior BPL management would face disciplinary or legal consequences for failing to prevent the alleged overtime abuse, but sought to downplay the disruption caused by the unions’ industrial action. “I gave a national address on the subject matter. I laid out what I perceive to be the issues and they’ll be dealt with,” the Prime Minister told reporters. The controversy first broke last week when The Tribune published an exclusive investigation revealing that three senior staff in BPL’s Fuel and Performance Department collected a combined total of more than $600,000 in overtime payments between May 2025 and April 2026. The report showed two of the three employees took home over $200,000 each in overtime alone, with some individual monthly payouts exceeding $20,000. One employee was even recorded working 90 consecutive hours over a four-day Christmas holiday period, a schedule that safety experts have flagged as inherently dangerous. In a national address delivered earlier this week, Davis joined in condemning the payments as systemic abuse of public funds. “It is not credible that a person works twenty-four hours straight, three days running, and does safe work,” Davis said in the address. “It is not fair to the ratepayer, who funds every dollar. And it is not fair to the honest worker, whose profession is tarnished by it.” The revelations of mass overtime abuse have triggered fierce pushback from BPL’s two main labor groups: the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) and the Bahamas Electrical Utility Managerial Union (BEUMU). Both unions have now ordered their members to adopt a work-to-rule mandate, meaning staff will only perform the exact duties outlined in their contracts, leading to widespread delays in maintenance and outage response across the islands. Two BPL employees have already been suspended over allegations of gross misconduct, though the connection to the overtime scandal remains unconfirmed. Local newspaper The Nassau Guardian identified the suspended staff as Senior Mechanical Technician Wellington Porter and Manager Melvin Babb. However, The Tribune’s review of payroll records does not list Porter as the employee who logged the controversial 90-hour Christmas week shift. BEUMU President Chris Hanna confirmed that the suspension letter issued to Babb does not reference the overtime abuse investigation, leaving the reason for his administrative leave unclear. With no clear timeline for a full investigation into the overtime claims, and industrial action disrupting power services across the country, the Davis administration now faces growing pressure from the public to resolve the scandal and restore accountability at BPL.