The Tribune

BAHAMAS Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) has been described as an autonomous body located in North Andros and scheduled to open on September 29. It was announced that it will offer accredited associate degrees and certificates through its partnership with The College of the Bahamas.

Although far behind schedule, the public has been assured that its first class of 50 students will be received on time – two weeks from now. Although, the college buildings are still not ready to accommodate them, it was said that temporary housing and educational facilities will be provided.

In February this year, Mr Christie said that $20m would be awarded in contracts to transform 200 acres of North Andros land into vegetable and livestock farms.

“Let me tell you what was always on my mind and what has always been my dream,” he said, “that this agricultural institute will grow the economy of North Andros. When you add the amount of investments that will be made to what we already have in place, there is no question that this will have a major impact on employment and the economy of this island.”

Mr Christie hoped that such an investment would make a significant dent in the reduction of the country’s agricultural imports.

However, the $20m figure was more than triple the amount allocated in the 2013/2014 budget, rather closer to the figure estimated for the total cost of the project over a five-year period.

As Agriculture Minister V Alfred Gray tried to justify this increased expenditure, he said that as they discussed the school “more things have been enlightened to us, so what we thought we could do has been broadened by multiples”.

It certainly has been broadened by multiples. About a week ago during a press tour of the unfinished “institute”, Mr Gray must have forgotten what he had said seven months earlier in trying to justify the $20 million overspend. He obviously had chosen to ignore the fact that his government had only budgeted $4m for the project. But relying on the community’s short memory, he blithely announced that the government had “spent almost $50m already and we’ve just begun!” Before the project is completed it is expected to cost $100m.

No wonder Opposition Leader Dr Hubert Minnis sounded the alarm after he had also completed a press tour of the site within a few days of Mr Gray’s tour.

“We would like to know where was that $50m spent?” the Opposition leader asked. “From our tour (of the BAMSI site), it was not spent there and from what we’ve seen they would need an additional $20m to complete what was there.

“We still need to see the plan. Where is the master plan so that we know what the intent was?” Dr Minnis asked.

It has been suggested that we shall never get answers until we get a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Nonsense. From the manner in which it has been suggested that the government further intends to tighten that Act, we shall probably get more information now than we shall ever get after they have toyed with it. We predict that when it surfaces the proposed FOIA will be filled with more “thou shalt not” clauses than “thou shall”. What the public — and the government in particular — has to understand is that this is the Bahamian people’s money they are trifling with. The people have the right to have an immediate audit and explanation before any more money is frittered away. The Opposition, as head of the Public Accounts Committee in the House of Assembly, has a duty to press for an explanation, and keep the public informed of their progress — or lack thereof.

Already after the allocation of these contracts in Andros, there have been disputes with at least one contractor accused of not paying his employees. Government has said it has nothing to do with these private transactions, but what must be remembered is that this is the Bahamian people’s money and it is the government’s duty to make certain it is properly spent on their behalf.

Even the Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas (UTEB) want an explanation of what’s happening. Among its many concerns UTEB wants to know why the government did not invest in the revamping and growth of the Associate of Science Degree programmes in Agriculture and Agribusiness at the College of the Bahamas, instead of creating a competing programme at BAMSI.

On paper, the BAMSI sounds like a grand plan if successful. However, the PLP does not have a proud record of successful farming. Our readers only have to recall 1975 when the Pindling government denied the work permits of Hatchet Bay farm’s scientists, fired experienced Bahamians either because of their skin colour or party politics, and took over the successful farm, which for years had supplied chickens, eggs, ice cream and milk to much of the Bahamas. At the time, Sir Lynden boasted that under his government the Hatchet Bay Processing Plant would be “the greatest success story in agriculture in the history of the Bahamas”.

The well-fed and fully employed residents of Alice Town clapped their hands in joy as “we government got we farm”. They have never clapped their hands since when several years later they were wandering like nomads throughout these islands looking for work to feed their families. Hatchet Bay was this country’s greatest and most disgraceful agricultural failure.

And then there was 1991 — a year before the PLP was booted from office after a 25-year reign. Bahamians should remember The Tribune headline of May 18, 1991 – “Starved cow carcasses litter Government farm on Andros.”

These cows — hundreds of them — were given to the Bahamian people by the United States government as a part of an agricultural project at Andros — The Bahamas Training and Development (BARTAD) project.

The aim of BARTAD was the same as BAMSI: “At BARTAD, Bahamians and Americans have worked together to create an agricultural centre which can be the capstone of Bahamian agriculture self-sufficiency and whose potential for the betterment of the Bahamian people is only now beginning to be tapped.”

Then deputy prime minister/minister of finance Arthur Hanna had said that the project “proved to be a model of international co-operation and collaboration in the field of agricultural development. We have transformed much of these 2,000 acres of pine forests or barrens into fields, orchard and pastures…”

It was another model of failure in incompetent hands. It was a farm in shambles, expensive equipment abandoned, eight staff houses, apartment buildings, offices, warehouses and sheds crumbling — the whole being reclaimed by Mother Nature. Starving animals wandered the land destroying private farms in their search for food and water. It was a disgrace of mammoth proportions.

It is now the duty of the Opposition, backed by Bahamians of whatever political persuasion, to make certain that there is not only an accounting of BAMSI, but that history does not repeat itself.

After all, Bahamians, you will be paying VAT to make such projects possible. It is in the best interest of every Bahamian to ensure that this project succeeds — and that their money is spent honestly and not just among government’s friends.