The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrole@tribunemedia.net



DEFENDING his integrity, Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister V Alfred Gray insists that government had already made an agreement to accommodate a single mother of two who was forced out of her business at Potter’s Cay Dock in April for safety reasons.
An official of the Attorney General’s office told The Tribune Thursday that no agreement between the government and Wendi Constantine, 46, had been made, contradicting Mr Gray’s statement to this newspaper last week.
Ms Constantine says her quality of life has deteriorated since she was forced to leave her stall in response to concerns about a BEC cabe underneath.
She claims the government has not determined whether to relocate her stall or when to pay her money in damages.
But Mr Gray said: “I stand by my statement which I made earlier, that an agreement had been reached between the AG’s office and the lawyers for Wendi Constantine in her presence and the lawyers recommended a solution which I took to Cabinet about two weeks ago and which Cabinet approved.”
“I saw an officer of the AG’s office say they don’t know about the agreement, and that’s baffling because it’s based on the AG’s advice that I submitted to Cabinet a settlement for approval.”
“The official who spoke to The Tribune might need to speak to the Senior Councillor Mrs Bartlett who was party to the discussions,” he said. “That will probably bring some clarity to the provisions since it was because of the AG’s recommendation from the meeting with them that I took the recommendation to Cabinet and got the approval. The Cabinet stands by the recommendations of its technical experts. I would be very disappointed if the AG ‘s office would send me their recommendation without reaching a decision with the vendor.”
Still, Mr Gray said Ms Constantine will have to wait until the “normal accounting” procedures are finished before she gets her money.
He could not say when her money will be available.
“It will go through the normal process. It has to go through the Ministry of Finance and then the Treasury. She should get her money shortly. She will be paid just like how we settled every other claim,” he said, adding: “I’m not sure what else the government could do.”
While he did not say how much money the government would give Ms Constantine in compensation, he said: “Cabinet has agreed to compensate her for the assessed value of her stall and provide her with a few thousand dollars for the economic loss she might’ve endured because of the move.”
Mr Gray added that the government will relocate her stall to a place in Potter’s Cay Dock on the opposite side of her old stall.
Responding to Ms Constantine’s claim that she is being victimized, Mr Gray said: “She is not being victimized. She was given one year’s notice by my ministry to remove her stall because it was over BEC’s power line and the government felt like on the request of BEC, two stalls had to be removed. We’re not just moving her because we don’t want her stall where it is, but because BEC requested that the stall be removed.”
Ms Constantine told The Tribune that BEC suggested that the cable could be re-routed.
To this, Mr Gray said: “BEC said to re-route it would be very expensive. It was cheaper to move her than to re-route it. It was more economical to pay her than to re-route the cable so we agreed to relocate her, compensate her and give her a new stall. This was no victimization and we won’t be party to that claim.”
Mr Gray challenged Ms Constantine to prove the government has not been “in talks with her and her lawyer at the AG’s office,” “reached this agreement, and made a settlement with her which was approved.”
As for Ms Constantine’s disappointment at Haitians allegedly keeping their stalls under the bridge, Mr Gray said: “I will not get into Bahamian, Haitian, American, Cubans. I do know that had it not been for BEC, she would be there today.”