The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE Christie administration has agreed to pay the $21 million owed to Baha Mar to cover the government’s portion of costs for roadwork associated with the development to assist Baha Mar in its stalled operations and to help pay the thousands of Bahamians currently on the resort’s payroll, The Tribune understands.

According to a well-placed source in the government, half of the $21 million will be paid on July 1 and the remainder in “mid July”. However the source, who spoke on condition on anonymity because the person was not authorised to release the information, said the money will only be paid “if Baha Mar can reach an agreement with China Export-Import Bank.”

The news comes as Prime Minister Perry Christie is embroiled in mediation between Baha Mar and its main financier, China Export-Import Bank.

Work at the Cable Beach resort has come to a standstill due to a dispute with the developer and the resort’s main contractor, China Construction America (CCA).

Tribune Business previously reported that CCA “admitted they slowed down” work in the lead-up to Baha Mar’s planned March 27 soft opening because of a dispute with the developer over the payment it should have received for February’s construction work.

Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Perry Christie said he received “encouraging” news about a possible impending resolution to the Baha Mar deadlock.

He said the news would hopefully bring a swift end to the impasse.

The Christie administration has already paid Baha Mar $28 million over the past two years for its share of the re-routed West Bay Street costs.

Under an agreement with the previous Ingraham administration, the government agreed it would pay $48.1 million to Baha Mar if the cost to reconfigure West Bay Street exceeded $70 million.

If the figure is less than $70 million, the government would only be obligated to pay 50 per cent.

Baha Mar officials claim the road re-routing cost $118 million, but the government has argued that this work was only valued at $58 million.

The government and Baha Mar have been unable to agree on how much money was still owed to Baha Mar since 2013.

In February, Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis criticized Baha Mar for not being “co-operative” in the continuing road works dispute. He told members of Parliament that Baha Mar officials have not been forthcoming with very specific information requests and have not attended agreed meetings.

Baha Mar officials denied this claim.

Meanwhile, Baha Mar is nearly six months behind its December 2014 opening date and has missed a March 27 soft opening. The property was finally expected to open in early May, but issues with the resort’s main contractor have contributed to continued delays. A new opening date has not been announced.

The resort is expected to hire 5,000 people when it is completely open. In the meantime, around 1,000 employees already working at the resort have been reassigned to areas outside of the positions for which they were hired – such as clean up and security watch.

Last week, Prime Minister Perry Christie acknowledged that the continuing impasse at Baha Mar could result in the resort eventually lacking the capacity to pay the thousands of people currently on its payroll.

“I have a number of meetings today (Thursday) with respect to Baha Mar,” he said last week. “Thousands of Bahamians have made decisions to go and work there and every day is a day of challenge and we could see it coming where the point could be reached where the developer says ‘I could no longer carry a payroll’ and so I am now directly involved in a very meaningful way in that exercise to try and bring a resolution to it. It is what it is right now.”