The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Agriculture and Marine Sciences Institute contractor Audley Hanna yesterday said he was confident that issues concerning insurance for the institute’s fire damaged dormitory will be resolved amicably with the government.

He also suggested that published reports regarding the building’s insurance were not true, however he did not specify what he meant.

Mr Hanna, of Paradigm Construction, told The Tribune that he is in talks with the government over the matter, however when pressed for further information he referred The Tribune to his lawyer Myles Laroda. Mr Laroda declined to comment further yesterday.

Mr Hanna said: “I have met with the government a few times. I leave it all up to my lawyers to deal with. There has been a lot of stuff in the papers with no kind of truth to it – just talk, talk, talk. My lawyers will deal with it.”

A massive fire gutted the male dormitory at BAMSI on January 15. Following the blaze, officials in the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Agriculture have given mixed answers in the face of questions about the building’s insurance.

Agriculture Minister V Alfred Gray initially told The Tribune that he was unsure if the building was insured, while Ministry of Works Permanent Secretary Colin Higgs was quoted as confirming that the building had insurance coverage.

During his contribution to the 2014/2015 mid-year budget debate last month, Minister of Works Philip “Brave” Davis confirmed that the dormitory was not insured at the time of the incident due to negligence on the part of the contractor.

Mr Davis said the contractor failed to pay the annual insurance premium that covered the structure.

“At the contract’s signing, the contractor had everything that was required to contract work with my ministry, including contractor’s all-risk insurance,” Mr Davis said in February.

“However, because of the delay and the fact that the contractor failed to pay the annual premium, the insurance coverage expired. Full completion of phase one is now projected for June 2015.”

However, FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis has since claimed that the company named by Mr Hanna as responsible for the building’s insurance, Southern Alliance, “does not exist” in the Bahamas.

Dr Minnis has insisted that the firm is not in fact a registered company in The Bahamas, and therefore would not be able to insure the dormitory.

Initial investigations by The Tribune revealed that Southern Alliance is not presently registered to do business in The Bahamas by the Insurance Commission of The Bahamas (ICB). Sources at the ICB have suggested that if the company was in fact responsible for insuring the BAMSI dormitory it would have had to be done without the ICB knowing.

Yesterday, Mr Laroda said: “I have no statement to make further on this.”

Last week, Mr Davis told The Tribune he had doubts about the insurer and promised to speak on the matter at a later date. When pressed on this yesterday, he said he would make a statement in the House of Assembly on the matter this week.

Mr Hanna initially told The Tribune that costs to repair the dormitory would be around $120,000, adding that the figure was expected to rise after a team from the Ministry of Works completed their assessment of the damage.

However, observers have speculated that it will cost at least $1 million to repair the building.

Dave Dion Moxey, 50, aka “Davo” of Fresh Creek, Andros, was charged on February 16 with arson. He was accused of setting fire to the dormitory.