The Tribune

"LET'S TALK about the new container port at Arawak Cay," was Opposition leader Perry Christie's invitation to his supporters at Clifford Park Friday night. In this column today, we shall take Mr Christie up on his invitation and do just that. However, we hope our facts are more accurate than his. "What we have here," declared Mr Christie, "is one of the biggest scandals in Bahamian history." However, from what we know about the relocation of the port to Arawak Cay rather than to Clifton as planned by the PLP, the fact is that one of the "biggest scandals in Bahamian history" has been avoided. The Arawak port cost in the region of $80 million, while the Christie administration's Clifton project was estimated at $300 million. And so to start with the Ingraham administration has save the country a "couple of pretty pennies." Now let's see what Mr Christie says about ownership and higher fees at the port. He maintains that it is the insider, the special shipping interest group, and not the Bahamian people and the government of the Bahamas, who are in charge of the port. Now let's look at the facts. Government entered into a public/private joint venture in the Arawak Port Development (ADP) with government contributing the land and with the private sector--among the traditional owners of the cargo ports -- providing the financing required for the construction. The private sector companies own 40 per cent of the new port, the government an equal 40 per cent and the public 20 per cent, which the Prime Minister hopes will increase as government, sometime in the future, makes a part of its 40 per cent available to Bahamians. Prime Minister Ingraham even made it possible for government employees to purchase shares in ADP by way of salary advances repayable to the Treasury by salary deductions over a period of up to 12 months. At the time the PLP advised their supporters that it was a bad deal. They discouraged them from buying into the port. Those who followed that advice might live long enough to regret their decision. The traditional shipping families -- the ones who had to give up their lucrative properties on Bay Street at a tremendous loss -- and invest their own money into building the port are among those who hold the private 40 per cent. It is only natural that they should get a secure return on their investment, as they took the greatest financial risk. Also invested are persons more recently in the business -- the Moskos, Tennyson Wells, the Lightbournes, the Taylors and the Curlings. And not to be forgotten are members of the Mailboat Association. So all sectors of the Bahamian community are well represented here. "If you were in charge," Mr Christie told the Clifford Park crowd, "you would not raise fees, which leads to higher prices - and no one can afford even higher prices - but they already done that!" Mr Christie is talking utter rubbish. If this were his business, and it was costing more to operate, he certainly would raise the fees. It is hoped for the sake of the economy that the fees will not be outrageously high, but anyone with any common sense would know that relocation would mean higher fees. So, Mr Christie, you might not be a businessman, but common sense would tell you that fees would go up. So stop taking advantage of the ignorance of the masses. When prime minister, Mr Christie had five years to develop the port, he recognised that the traditional stakeholders were essential to invest in building the new port and that the property owners from the previous downtown ports should be invited to do so. However, the big difference in the Christie proposal as opposed to the Ingraham accomplishment is the location. Mr Christie wanted to move the port to Clifton. He is now complaining about increased fees at Arawak, can anyone imagine the astronomical fees if goods had to be hauled from Clifton? The cost of food would have gone through the ceiling. But we don't suppose Mr Christie was thinking of the poor Bahamian and his food bills in his Clifton calculations. Perry Christie's port would have been located next to the BEC power plant, an inland port that would have involved extensive dredging -- far more than Mr Fitzgerald complained about at Arawak. Remember the land at Arawak Cay was owned by government, whereas the land at Clifton was owned by Frankie Wilson's company. At the same time that this location option was being advanced by the Christie government, Mr Wilson purchased Shell, which owned the property just east of the plant which would have been essential to the inland port's entrance from the sea. Obviously, Mr Wilson would have owned a significant interest in the port. And so with Mr Ingraham, not only do the Bahamian people have a port built on the people's land, but the Bahamian people are very much stakeholders in the investment. The Arawak Port cost $80 million, Mr Christie's proposed Clifton Port would have cost $300 million. Either way the cost of goods will increase, but by comparison to Clifton, Arawak will still be a savings.