The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ economic future is now in “dire jeopardy” due to the “drastic miscalculations, belligerence and widespread incompetence” displayed by the current Christie administration in its handling of the Baha Mar ordeal, according to Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner.

In a statement released yesterday, the shadow minister of labour urged Prime Minister Perry Christie and members of his Cabinet to end their acrimony, name-calling and bombastic rhetoric – actions she labelled as the “game playing” responsible for the stalled state of the $3.5bn mega resort.

She urged the government to “demonstrate maturity and leadership” in its attempts to jumpstart the Cable Beach project.

She added that the government made “an absolute mess” of the Baha Mar development from its onset, calling into question concerns raised early on about the resort’s scale and scope.

In addition to the government’s failure to pay funds owed to Baha Mar for re-routing West Bay Street, Mrs Butler-Turner noted that questions remain about oversight of the resort’s construction as well as questions of “conflicts of interest by Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson and potentially other Ministers in the Christie Cabinet.” Amidst these issues, Mrs Butler-Turner said, Prime Minister Perry Christie remained silent.

“When he did speak, he often raised serious questions about his grasp of events related to the opening of the mega resort,” she added.

According to Mrs Butler-Turner, Friday’s Supreme Court ruling offers another opportunity for the various parties to move forward in the interests of Bahamian workers and the overall economy.

“Judges in two jurisdictions have now very sensibly favoured a draw back to the negotiating table. From the beginning, the PLP government should have acted as facilitator of this process. Instead, the government has been the biggest problem in this whole affair, recklessly obstructing what is obviously in the best interest of the workers at Baha Mar and the Bahamian people.”

Last Friday, the Supreme Court appointed provisional liquidators to oversee Baha Mar with considerable limited powers to prevent the dispensation of the resort’s assets.

The substantive hearing for the government’s winding-up petition is scheduled for November.