The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

SAVE the Bays (STB) Director Romauld Ferreira yesterday hit out at claims that he is being financially compensated in this capacity with the environmental group, stating that any earnings from STB came as a result of legal work done for the organisation.

Mr Ferreira said as far as he knew, none of the organisation’s directors are currently receiving salaries for their posts. He insisted that STB is a civil body working to protect the environment of The Bahamas.

“I am not a paid director of Save the Bays, I am an attorney and an ecologist. The Coalition for Save the Bays has actions in court, judicial reviews challenging unregulated development in the Clifton Bay area,” he said.

“To the best of my knowledge, directors aren’t paid to be a director at Save the Bays. I know I am not and I don’t know of any of my colleagues that are actually paid to be a directors at Save the Bays,” he added.

Last week in the House of Assembly, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald indicated that STB has used the organisation’s banner to cover up its true intent - to “destabilise the government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.”

Also last week, Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller alleged in the House of Assembly that five members of STB take home a combined salary of $740,000.

Additionally, Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell claimed that some $8.25m had been filtered through various organisations connected with STB - locally and internationally - from 2013 to 2015.

However, Mr Mitchell stopped of identifying what the $8m was for, but questioned whether STB was a “genuine environmental organisation” or an “attempt to subvert” certain parliamentarians.

Responding to these assertions, Mr Ferreira accused the Christie administration of working relentlessly to subvert the issues at hand - the large number of environmental issues affecting the country.

Addressing the claims made particularly by Mr Fitzgerald, who is also the MP for Marathon, Mr Ferreira said the education minister was responding out of fear.

Mr Ferreira was recently ratified by the Free National Movement as the party’s candidate in the Marathon constituency.

“He has misrepresented the focus of the people of Marathon and now is working to find all the help and ammunition needed to win a political fight,” Mr Ferreira said.

The two men have been at odds ever since Mr Ferreira took the MP to task for his lack of transparency in the wake of a 2011 gas leak in the Marathon constituency.

Mr Fitzgerald last Thursday also claimed that local advocacy group Justice for Marathon, which is aimed at bringing awareness to Marathon residents in the aftermath of the 2011 Rubis gas spill, is actually just another brainchild of STB to advance its political agenda and remove the PLP from governance.

Mr Ferreira has accused the Marathon MP of only attacking STB to win political points.

“If I wasn’t involved in that process, the government would have walked over some key details in that matter. Everything would have been glossed over and that information never would have been released,” he added.

“(Mr Fitzgerald) is very unpopular in the area (of Marathon) and a lot of that is his own doing and a big part of the own doing was (his actions relating to) that spill. His decision impacted the quality of lives. People that voted for him, his people.”

The STB controversy springs from allegations that Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard employed two “gang members” to carry out crimes against those who opposed further development at Nygard Cay.

On March 9, four STB directors - Joseph Darville, Mr Ferreira, Fred Smith and Louis Bacon - and Reverend CB Moss, who is not a STB member, filed an affidavit by Florida investigator John Joseph DiPaolo to probe Mr Nygard’s connection to Livingston “Toggie” Bullard and Wisler “Bobo” Davilma, the two men in question.

Mr DiPaolo’s findings, contained in a 400-page affidavit, were part of court filings against Mr Nygard and his lawyer Keod Smith.