The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

ACCUSING the government of keeping Bahamians in the dark on oil exploration, FNM deputy leader Loretta Butler-Turner is calling on the government to urgently respond to “deeply troubling” comments made by Bahamas Petroleum Company CEO Simon Potter.

Mr Potter told potential investors in London that BPC’s financial deal with the government is “second to none” and “music to people’s ears” and also that the oil-drilling referendum discussion had been removed by the government, according to a report in a local daily, said the Long Island MP.

The PLP “has again” put foreign interests first and the Bahamian people “dead last” in terms of providing information and consultation on potential oil resources owned by the Bahamas, Mrs Butler-Turner declared.

“First, what exactly are these ‘second to none’ financial terms being offered the company by the government of the Bahamas on behalf of the Bahamian people who have yet to vote in a referendum on oil exploration, as promised by the PLP during the 2012 general election,” Mrs Butler-Turner asked.

“Secondly, the financial terms being offered will be ‘music to the ears’ of whom:  BPC, foreign interests, or whom else?”

Mr Potter also “made the stunning claim”, Mrs Butler-Turner continued, that the “government had undertaken a ‘removal of any discussion of a referendum’.”

Stating that a referendum on oil drilling was promised by the government during the last election campaign, the deputy leader said that both Prime Minister Perry Christie and Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis both served as consultants for BPC prior to the 2012 general election.

“When exactly will that referendum be held so that the PLP can keep that promise as well as the promise of putting Bahamians first? Additionally, when will Mr Christie and Mr Davis disclose the handsome financial terms they received as consultants for BPC,” Mrs Butler-Turner asked.

And quoting Mr Potter as it appeared in a local daily - “...underneath the surface what we’ve received from the government is a removal of any discussion they had with respect to a referendum...” Mrs Butler Turner questioned this remark.

“What does the BPC CEO mean that ‘underneath the surface’ that any discussion of a referendum has been removed,” she asked.

“Oil exploration is a monumental decision for the country. It must be approached with deliberation, accountability and transparency, little of which now appears to be the case.

“The Bahamian people and the Official Opposition deserve and demand greater transparency and answers from the Christie government relative of the claims made by the CEO of BPC.”

Mr Davis, whose law firm had provided services to Bahamas Petroleum prior to Mr Davis taking office, has defended himself against the FNM’s claims of links between the PLP and the Bahamas Petroleum Company in the past.

“I have no further affiliation with them. In fact, even before being elected they had already engaged other counsel. I am now in a different capacity and I resent the inference that they (the FNM) will draw,” he had said in March when this issue was raised.

He has branded the opposition’s outcry as an “attempt to taint the character and integrity of myself and others”.

Also responding to the FNM’s call for disclosure of how much he, the prime minister and Senator Jerome Gomez – or their firms or other related parties – were paid by BPC, Mr Davis had said he didn’t remember the exact amount and added: “It was my firm that got a retainer and we were paid for the work we had done.”

For his part, Mr Christie had said, also in March: “This firm that he (Mr Davis) was in, that I was in, that Hubert Ingraham was in. We had about nine clients, started in 1976 – on oil, it became the pre-eminent firm on oil in the country.

“When I was prime minister, one or two of these matters came up last time. No one suggested that I was compromised – client after client after client on oil.”

Mr Christie also said: “I thank God that from time to time I’m able to give advice which I’m paid for when I’m in opposition. But I gave up my career for public life.”

He had said he will not allow anyone to “besmirched (his) integrity” in defending himself against the FNM’s claims.