The BAMSI blaze in January 2015.
By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
OFFICIALS investigating the fire-damaged dormitory at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute have said the structure does not have to be demolished despite its condition, according to Ministry of Works Director John Canton.
When asked if he could reveal how much the repairs to the dormitory would cost, Mr Canton said he “couldn’t recall the figures” which were projected during evaluations of the dormitory.
He added that the start of repair on the dormitory is totally dependent on the resolution of issues surrounding the insurance coverage of the structure.
Mr Canton said he could not speak on the subject because he was not involved with the team responsible for looking into it.
Works Minister Philip “Brave” Davis is expected to make a statement today in the House of Assembly over the controversial issue of insurance.
It has put the government at the centre of fierce criticism from those who say the Christie administration has been negligent in its handling of BAMSI’s construction.
On Monday, the official opposition criticised the government in the House of Assembly, demanding that it “come clean” over the dormitory, which was the subject of an arson attack on January 15.
Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn insisted that the Christie administration “did not understand the meaning of transparency,” stressing that questions about the insurance policy should not be left unanswered, nearly two months after the fire.
Mr Lightbourn alleged that the government negligently allowed BAMSI to be constructed in the absence of insurance.
This came after it was reported that a Ministry of Works file showed no proof of a certificate to validate the existence of a policy. However, there was a quote for insurance coverage on file, it was claimed.
However, the insurance quote was not from Southern Alliance, the company named by the building’s contractor as the insurer.
Following Monday’s House session, Mr Davis said he would speak more on the BAMSI insurance when Parliament reconvened.
Meanwhile, the contractor of the building, Audley Hanna, has said he is confident that issues concerning the insurance coverage will be resolved amicably.
Mr Hanna, of Paradigm Construction, told The Tribune that he has had talks with the government over the matter, however when pressed for further information he referred this newspaper to his lawyer Myles Laroda. Mr Laroda declined to comment further on Monday.
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.”
During his contribution to the 2014/2015 mid-year budget debate last month, Mr 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.
However, the Free National Movement has claimed that the insurance company named by Mr Hanna “does not exist.” The company is not in the phone book, nor is it registered with the Insurance Commission of The Bahamas.
Comments
proudloudandfnm 9 years, 8 months ago
Wow, This is one lying, sneaky government. How is it anyone can still vote for this party of crooked amateurs man? Muddos.
Sorry but if you vote PLP you are an idiot.....
duppyVAT 9 years, 8 months ago
If you listened to Brave Davis just now in the House of Assembly, this a seriously tangled web of deceit and underhanded system of political cronyism concocted by the PLP (and all former governments since 1964).
TalRussell 9 years, 8 months ago
Nothing new here Comrades. These are the outcomes we usually associate with a PLP administration. Only in a PLP Cabinet the mystery whether you have insurance coverage in force or not is just about to be revealed until after the alleged arson fire. I hate say this being the bad decision it was but had they only paid the worker his earned wages, we would never have known about this insurance thing. In a way he is as much a whistle blower as as he is an alleged arsonist.
Still this PLP cabinet has refused to address why workers were not paid. In fact reports are still circulating with claims of BAMSI workers going unpaid, by both the contractor and the PLP Cabinet?
I would suggest any sudden insurance policy emerging must undergo an non-government forensic audit?
Sorry Comrades, but I no longer believe - much less trust - anything coming out mouths of anything that looks, walks and quacks like a PLP.
DonAnthony 9 years, 8 months ago
Very good point Tal which is why it pays to be honest, in a very real sense we all reap what we sow. Perhaps we need whistle blower legislation, that protects and rewards those who expose corruption and stealing from the public treasury. In the U.S. a whistle blower is entitled to a percentage of the funds recovered because of their action.
asiseeit 9 years, 8 months ago
If V. Alfred and Brave where honorable members they would admit that they where negligent and tender their resignations. We know that our P.M. is too spineless to request their resignations. This is a textbook example of cronyism, neglect, mismanagement, and disregard for the peoples money. Heads should roll. But sadly we are dealing with the government of the Bahamas, they have no clue as to what the proceeding words mean.
duppyVAT 9 years, 8 months ago
This would not happen under a Hubert Ingraham led government ........ period
SP 9 years, 8 months ago
My-My-My, How Quickly We Forget When It's OUR Pirate At The Helm
Hubert Ingraham allowed his Cabinet Minister of Tourism to walk away with $5M through a shell company.........& let's not forget the $350,000.00 bathrooms on Saunders beach!
That's just what leaked out! How many more MILLIONS vanished under Hubert Ingraham?
PLP & FNM are 6 of one & half dozen of the other..Both totally corrupt!
Sickened 9 years, 8 months ago
Corrupt, incompetent people in charge of our country. What is most unfortunate is that there are very few people, in all parties, who are truly capable of running The Bahamas. Hopefully we get 10 or so good independent candidates for our next general elections.
B_I_D___ 9 years, 8 months ago
What insurance??!! Think it has been made painfully clear that there IS NO INSURANCE...so what insurance issue are you waiting to resolve?? Bunch of retards, the lot of them...Birdie...you need to come in here and offer up a sound defense for this one...let's hear it...put ya PLP godlike goggles on and spin this into how and why they are doing the right thing here?
realfreethinker 9 years, 8 months ago
Birdie would be an idiot to defend this shit. I am wondered the same thing when he said as soon as the insurance thing is cleared up.
dahasamo 9 years, 8 months ago
It used to be that for Government contracts, in addition to the property insurance, a performance bond had to be acquired so that the Government was protected if the contractor defaulted on the job. When did this change?
realfreethinker 9 years, 8 months ago
when the peehellpee took over.
Alltoomuch 9 years, 8 months ago
How can something that never happened in the first place be cleared up and how can we sit & discuss this with straight faces?? Is this better or worse than a hologram?
observer2 9 years, 8 months ago
I have every confidence that the Government will come to the bottom of this and the dorm will be rebuilt for our young Bahamians to live in. Once done we will be able to grow our own food and feed the nation!
I am sure that once they have found the insurance policy they will find that it was an unfortunate oversight.
The contractor also said he will find the funds to rebuild. Let give him some time to get the dorm rebuilt.
Let put our full support behind Bamsi and the Bahamian Government!
asiseeit 9 years, 8 months ago
What country do you live in? I would like to move there, PLEASE!
Alltoomuch 9 years, 8 months ago
Love it! - Let's hope you're right and we can all live happily ever after...
licks2 9 years, 8 months ago
The building now cost over five million dollars to rebuild. . .game over. . .the contractors een can build that back at that price. . .he is a big PLP stalwart. . .nobody will pay to ficx the building but us!!! That's how PGC them work. . .LAWLESS PEOPLES!!!
jusscoolin 9 years, 8 months ago
The real question is .Were there monies allocated for insurance purposes ? If so, where did it go ? Or did it go up in smoke with the rest of the building.
SP 9 years, 8 months ago
.................................. Bahamians need to get up off our "MOUTHS" ................................ .........................and DO SOMETHING about these pirates we call leaders ..........................
Monies were allocated for insurance and disappeared just like aragonite, salt, oil and GOD knows what else does!
Americans are signing a petition to the White House urging charges be filed against 47 Republican senators who they say committed "treason"
http://news.yahoo.com/150-000-sign-trea…
Why can't Bahamians sign a petition demanding an immediate implementation of a Freedom Of Information act and total exposure on BAMSI, aragonite, oil, salt, BEC, BTC, education, Customs, Immigration etc.?
Time for the pirates to put where they belong......FOX HILL PRISON!
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 8 months ago
weirdest story ever. "The insurance lapsed because the project went on longer than expected"
Except..there never was an insurance policy so it couldn't lapse. You couldn't even mistakenly believe it lapsed, not one premium had ever been paid.
Did the name of the company who provided the insurance quote.rhyme with "Southern Alliance"??? "Bouthern Defiance" maybe?? Where did the fictitious "Southern Alliance" come from?
Mr Hanna said he would check with his lawyers on the status of the policy. How long could his smart lawyers take to uncover the facts? Hmmm... with BTC drop call rate, maybe five minutes??
How long would Brave Davis have taken to request a meeting with the project team on SUCH AN IMPORTANT INITIATIVE. I mean, bring all the documents to my office I want a complete update . A month later he's telling Parliament the insurance lapsed?? That is either a direct attempt to deceive parliament or such egregious incompetence he should not be allowed to continue as Minister of Works. He's the gate keeper. Don't look around for who didn't do, look in the mirror it's YOU.
Something is seriously wrong, impropriety continues to swirl around him. And the money in question is always one big butt load of dollars,. Look at poor widow Mrs Kohlrautz who couldn't speak a word of English ending up with 20,000 dollars out of a two million dollar estate, while apparently Brave Davis' "company" ends with the bulk of the properties for a measly 200,000,. That doesn't smell right. Legal docs signed or not.
Now he's saying they're going to pay the man who was incapable of paying his staff, out of a TWO MILLION dollar purse , on an arguably overpriced contract, who was apparently not "forthcoming" about fulfilling his obligations, who apparently deliberately set out to deceive giving the name of a company that didn't exist, and who actually submitted a proposal, therefore acknowledging that he knew insurance was needed, but couldn't part with a single coin not one penny of it to pay the premium . This is the man that you want to entrust with MORE responsibility?. Was he even on time? Was he under budget?
Brave Davis with not even a snicker tells us yesterday, we will ask this man to rebuild the dorm, increase the capacity and more than double the budget. Has anyone done an assessment on whether the building constructed the first time actually required a 2.5 million dollar bounty? We could be rewarding this man for incompetence, paying him the cost to reconstruct the building along with a bonus for the stress the Bahamian people caused HIM over the past month...what in the name is this mess in 2015?? You have to have some seriously large duplicated male organs to propose this. Either that or a very efficient gall bladder.
Sloppy job my fast talking bill ducking servant, you have been unfaithful in many things, I will reward you with double the things you screwed up the first time Huh??
realfreethinker 9 years, 8 months ago
Man thisisours I could not have written it any better. Why brave is still a cabinet minister is unthinkable. What kind of pm did the Bahamians elect in 2012 ?
asiseeit 9 years, 8 months ago
The same do nothing P.M. they fired in 2007. Bahamians just do not learn. We need new leadership, both political party's are abject failures. Due to their mismanagement (FNM and PLP) The Bahamas is in serious decline. In all my 50 odd years I have never been so dejected about the state of our country. Unless Bahamians get involved and make their voices heard we are just going to continue to be railroaded by a corrupt government. I heard somewhere that unless great men/women get involved in politics they are doomed to be ruled by lesser men. Do we have any great men/women in this country?
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