By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
A DAY after former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham called the Christie administration’s push to have Baha Mar liquidated a bad move, the government hit back saying provisional liquidation “was the only sensible option available”.
Yesterday, Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts also fired back at Mr Ingraham over his criticism of the government’s handling of Baha Mar, branding his comments as dangerous to the country’s sovereignty.
A statement released by the government last night said its actions were taken to reduce “harm to the Bahamian economy and Baha Mar’s Bahamian employees and other creditors.”
“Any suggestion to the contrary demonstrates a lack of awareness of the facts surrounding Baha Mar’s insolvency,” the government’s statement added.
“Recent press accounts critical of the government’s decision suggest that the government should have committed $100 million in taxpayer funds to supplement financing ostensibly available from Baha Mar’s construction lender, the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM) and its developer, Sarkis Izmirlian. This criticism ignores a critical fact: provisional liquidation of the Baha Mar companies was the only realistic choice following their surprise Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Delaware in late June 2015. The developer himself, in the US bankruptcy proceedings, made clear he had no money to complete the project and that he had every intention of downsizing.”
During a rare interview on Tuesday at his law office, Mr Ingraham said the government was “dead wrong” to petition the Supreme Court to place the resort into provisional liquidation, instead of letting the developer’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing play out in a US court.
He also said the government had experience in such matters, drawing parallels to the sale of property on Paradise Island in the early 1990s.
“The government was dead wrong to put Baha Mar in liquidation,” Mr Ingraham stressed. “It made a big mistake when it said that it was against the sovereign interest of the Bahamas for Baha Mar to go into Chapter 11 in the United States. We’ve had that experience before, (the former) Resorts International - Paradise Island - was in Chapter 11 in America when Mr Pindling was prime minister and when Christie was a minister.”
He also said the government “tilted in favour” of the Chinese interests associated with the project.
During a separate interview, Mr Ingraham told reporters he advised the prime minister that “it would have made sense” for the government to provide $100 million to the project to keep it afloat.
Yesterday, the government stressed that the Chapter 11 proceedings would have “prolonged the developer’s control of the Baha Mar project (at the cost of tens of millions of dollars of professional fees); but it could not possibly have changed the outcome for Baha Mar, except for the worse.”
“By commencing winding-up proceedings and moving for appointment of provisional liquidators, the government preserved the possibility of a negotiated resolution, while assuring that the fate of the Baha Mar resort and the claims of its creditors would be determined in The Bahamas - not in a bankruptcy court in Delaware. This measure, among other things, saved Bahamian unsecured creditors the cost of pursuing their claims in the US.”
And on Mr Ingraham’s comparison of the Baha Mar matter to issues related to Paradise Island in the early 1990s, the government said: “The Baha Mar proceedings differed sharply from the two Resorts International bankruptcies. The properties on Paradise Island controlled by Resorts International were part of a much larger enterprise that included casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. “The Resorts International bankruptcies affected holding companies and their creditors and led to the sale of the Paradise Island properties to Sol Kerzner; but they did not jeopardize the Bahamian economy or the interests of Bahamian employees or other creditors. By contrast, the Baha Mar project constituted virtually the only material asset of any of the Baha Mar companies (whose connections with the United States, let alone the State of Delaware, were minimal), while the Baha Mar companies’ bankruptcy threated to harm, and has gravely harmed, the Bahamian economy and Baha Mar’s Bahamian employees and creditors.”
In his statement, Mr Roberts claimed that Mr Ingraham’s comments set a dangerous precedent and stood to undermine the sovereignty of the country if the FNM is elected to govern.
“Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s ill-advised comments on the Baha Mar bankruptcy process prove yet again that failing to stand up for Bahamians and the sovereignty of The Bahamas must be endemic in the FNM,” he said.
“When faced with the decision to stand up for The Bahamas, the leadership of the FNM always waffles and struggles on this score. The decision of the Christie administration to oppose the subjugation of our sovereign jurisdiction to a foreign one, reducing our judiciary to a rubber stamp was a matter of sovereignty and we stand behind the government on this policy decision.”
He challenged the former prime minister to provide details on other matters of national intrigue, such as the contentious sale of BTC to Cable and Wireless, the international bribery scandal that led to the conviction of a former Bahamas Electricity Corporation board member, and the findings of the NIB forensic audit.
He added: “Not only is Ingraham failing to stand up for the Bahamas, his record of governance and his terrible policy decisions do not cause for real progress, but have set this country back many years.”
Comments
Honestman 8 years, 4 months ago
The moronic Roberts trying to defend the indefensible! Christie and the PLP screwed up big time over Baha Mar and they know it. Interesting how Shane Gibson and Fred Mitchell have gone all quiet on the subject. They had so much to say for themselves earlier.
hallmark 8 years, 4 months ago
So if you made the right decision, why you trying to defend yourself? And to HAI of all people!
SP 8 years, 4 months ago
....... If the right decision was made Baha Mar would operational....Common sense! ..........
The PLP forever delivering horse piss to the country and telling the people its mint sweet tea.
proudloudandfnm 8 years, 4 months ago
Bradley is lying. He knows damn well they messed it up....
BaronInvest 8 years, 4 months ago
Unbelievable... they don't even feel ashamed... Poor people of the Bahamas, getting publicly robbed and then sent back into the corner.
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 4 months ago
The right decision? The only facts he has are that Bahamar has been sitting unfinished for two years and Perry Christie despite numerous calls, travel, public statements and "strong" letters has been unable to convince the Chinese to move one step toward completion of the hotel, those are hardly hallmarks of the "right" decision. The best he can say is, they made a decision and they have to make the best of it.
Franklyn 8 years, 4 months ago
How could it be the right decision when no one (Bahamian Contractors/Subs and Service Providers) have being paid by:
Baha Mar Ltd, - currently under bankruptcy protection
or
CCA Bahamas Ltd, - not under any bankruptcy protection
(Bahamian Contractors/Subs and Service Providers) with direct contracts with CCA Bahamas should have being paid by now - CCA Bahamas is not under any bankruptcy restrictions but there is never a mention of CCA Bahamas's deliberate neglect to hounor its legal obligations in the Bahamas to these (Bahamian Contractors/Subs and Service Providers) who are owed Millions in outstanding that CCA can pay but in Chinese bad business practice ...just refuse to pay.
Current action against CCA Bahamas in court for work completed at Baha Mar is being carried out by:
(*) Update on Controlled Demolition, Inc. v. CCA Bahamas, Ltd.
Order was give: ORDER: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that a settlement conference shall be held in the above captioned action on November 10, 2016, at 2:30 p.m., in courtroom 228, 40 Centre Street, New York, New York. The parties are directed to review and comply with the undersigned's Procedures Applicable to Cases Referred for Settlement, a copy of which is being provided to the parties with this Order. Additionally, at least seven days prior to the settlement conference, the parties must confer, in person or by telephone, to engage in good-faith settlement negotiations. Should the parties resolve the litigation prior to the conference date, they must notify the undersigned, in writing, expeditiously. (Settlement Conference set for 11/10/2016 at 02:30 PM in Courtroom 228, 40 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 before Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox.) (Signed by Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox on 5/27/2016) (cf)*
http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…
John 8 years, 4 months ago
when you do something once or twice it is a mistake. When you do the same thing over and over, it's a habit. So much for Bradley Roberts comments. What do you think is the better scenario: (1) Bah Mar as it sits now, idle and all its 'newness' wasting away in the sun. Its future seems uncertain and definitely not opening in 2017. Its control in the hands of the China ExIm bank and ultimately in the hands of the the government of the Peoples Republic of China.
OR . (2) Izmirilian being allowed to take out bankruptcy proceedings against the China ExIm bank, get a two-three year protection from the bank foreclosing, complete and open Bah Mar, pay off the minor creditors and continue to employ 2,000 to 3,000 Bahamians and maybe even more, thereby providing some of the much needed stimulus needed to get the Bahamian economy moving.
Even if Bah Mar had opened and had to close after three to four years, because it was not a profitable entity at least the Bahamas would have benefited for those years and if the project went into foreclosure it would be in a better position to be resold. Bah Mar as it sits now will never have the value it would have had if it had opened a year ago. Let Christie and Bradley Roberts measure the opportunity cost of having a $3.5 billion project sit idle for so long. Not to mention the real cost to get it up and going again.
Franklyn 8 years, 4 months ago
Izmirilian has stuck a gun to the head the Chinese, and the Chinese in return, has stuck 2 guns to the heads of the Bahamian contractor and the Government of The Bahamas.
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 4 months ago
The chicoms know exactly what they're doing. Yeah, right, it's not PC to call 'our partners in prosperity', the chicoms. But the country's motto remains unchanged:
"Use capitalism to build communism to destroy the West."
Appears that all's goin just swimmingly, according to plan, doesn't it?
SP 8 years, 4 months ago
.... Hope and pray the PLP doesn't make any more "right decisions" before May 2017! ....
BMW 8 years, 4 months ago
Perry could not allow the bankruptcy proceeding! To do so would have exposed every single inside deal that the plp elite, friends families and lovers had with CCA,
Honestman 8 years, 4 months ago
You got that right!
MassExodus 8 years, 4 months ago
I would hate to see what the outcome of the wrong decision would have been....
TomMariner 8 years, 4 months ago
The decision caused the people of the Bahamas two years (so far) of revenue from all those rooms and the casino and the jobs.
The actions of the government do seem slanted toward the Exim Bank of China, the CCA (which brought in Chinese construction workers), and away from the guy with the idea. An argument could be made that some sort of incentive was granted to the officials of the government, but of course no one has any proof of this.
Any other project in the Caribbean had better study how this was structured and do the opposite. For starters, I would insist on workers from closer than 12,000 miles away and hopefully from the home country. Regardless of their craft skill level, resident workers and managers could be influenced patriotically and with pride -- and the problem here is the hotel complex construction was not finished.
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