The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Free National Movement (FNM) chairman Darron Cash yesterday charged that the Government and Cable and Wireless Communication (CWC) “cannot both be right” regarding claims to the majority control of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).

Mr Cash’s comments came following Tribune Business report that CWC’s newly-released 2013-2014 accounts, approved by its Board of Directors and external auditors, list the company on page 151 as having 51 per cent “ownership of ordinary shares in BTC” among its various subsidiaries and affiliates.

Back in January, CWC and the Government announced that an agreement had been reached to establish a charitable foundation dedicated to investing in projects for the benefit of Bahamians.

The Foundation, to be named the BTC Foundation, will be created by the Government and funded by an almost-2 per cent stake in BTC, contributed by CWC.

Under the agreement, CWC transferred 2 per cent non-voting shares from its 51 per cent shareholding to the BTC Foundation, with the Government and CWC both holding 49 per cent and the BTC Foundation, 2 per cent.

Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) chief executive, Phil Bentley, reassured last week that the conclusion of the ‘2 per cent of shares’ in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) deal with the Government was “imminent”.

“The truth about who really ‘controls BTC’ lies somewhere in the analysis of whether BTC is majority ‘Bahamian’ controlled, or whether it is majority ‘Government’ controlled, or whether it is controlled by CWC with the help of ‘Bahamians’. It would appear that CWC’s assertion that they ‘retained management/board control’ suggests that to the extent the Christie government can boast of ‘majority Bahamian control’, then clearly one or more of those ‘Bahamians’ represents CWC and not the Bahamian people,” said Mr Cash.

“CWC’s position, and the Bahamian Government’s position, cannot both be right,” Mr Cash added.

He suggested that Prime Minister Perry Christie had talked up the BTC deal to save face and give the appearance that he had been successful in the “claw back”.

“The absolute worst thing about Perry Christie as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance is that at a time when domestic and foreign investors want to, and need to be able to, have confidence in the words from this critical government official, the reality is that most time people either do not know what the PM meant when he finished speaking or if they can believe him,” said Mr Cash.