The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

MCKELL Bonaby, executive chairman of the Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority, says officials are working to address pay concerns of workers who were contracted to do work for the authority.

He said the authority will have more to say on the issue sometime next week.

“Stay tuned,” he told reporters during a press conference yesterday.

“We have some very good news coming next week. We have very good news for those individuals and this government has been working expeditiously to ensure that whether it’s a major investment or investors, Bahamians are more important to us than anything else and so we’re going to make sure that we take care of everyone who has had contracts with the authority and who can legitimately show that they have done the work and who have all of their paperwork in order.”

The contract workers claim they are owed payments from the authority from July last year.

They have expressed their frustrations over the issue and have even held several demonstrations outside the Office of the Prime Minister, demanding to speak with Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis.

“We are going to be here until we’re satisfied about where our monies are. Whether we get a letter, whether we get a meeting, if we get a statement. Whatever gone cause us to be satisfied as a group,” protest organiser Richard Johnson said earlier this month.

Yesterday, Mr Bonaby declined to give an estimate on how much is owed to workers, only saying officials will address the matter next week.

“We’re still collating all of the information for the various categories of the contractors, so I don’t want to just do it piecemeal. I want to give the full scope of it, and we will be doing it next week,” the Mount Moriah MP added.

When asked whether any new contracts have been issued for the year, Mr Bonaby replied: “There have been some contracts in terms of new issuance, but the whole execution of the process has not been completed as yet.”