The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie said he is confident that China Construction America will soon start paying Baha Mar’s Bahamian subcontractors and restart its efforts to complete the mega resort in Cable Beach, so long as Supreme Court appointed provisional liquidators approve their plans.

Mr Christie met with officials of the resort’s general contractor in New York on Monday and urged CCA to pay the local contractors and begin to remobilise its resources at the Baha Mar site.

Speaking to state broadcaster ZNS while in New York, Mr Christie said: “I’m very encouraged as I go back to the Bahamas that I’m leaving with the leadership of the construction company and the Bahamas government on the same page. The construction company is prepared with the consent of the provisional liquidator to remobilise and move towards the completion as quickly as possible.”

Mr Christie said he explained to the officials that “there are Bahamian contractors who are desperately in need of assistance.”

He said: “We took the opportunity to have a discussion with China Construction and I would expect that if and when they are given permission to remobilise, that the small contractors’ claims would be recognised. It is my expectation that it would be significantly recognised and notwithstanding the fact that we have a provisional liquidator in place to make the final decisions, there would be every effort made to ensure that full payment is made to these contractors.”

Mr Christie said that officials from CCA are now making efforts to assess what damage or deterioration has taken place at the Baha Mar site since work there was halted earlier this year.

Mr Christie said the progress on the matter validates his decision to have the Supreme Court take over the matter.

This marks the latest instance in which Mr Christie has highlighted the “wisdom” of the administration’s decision to file a winding up petition in the Supreme Court after Baha Mar and its affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy in the United States.

Last week Tuesday, after the Delaware Bankruptcy Court threw out the Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Baha Mar’s Bahamian companies, striking a major blow to the developer’s efforts to determine a path toward ending the debacle, Mr Christie also claimed victory.

Reacting to the news at the time, he said: “The government welcomes the decision of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court to dismiss the Chapter 11 proceedings against the Bahamian Baha Mar entities. In so doing, the Bankruptcy Court agreed that the future of the Baha Mar resort should be determined in the proceedings in the Supreme Court of the Bahamas, in which Justice (Ian) Winder has appointed provisional liquidators.

“The government’s primary objective is, and has always been, to see the resort completed, opened and operating as soon as possible,” Mr Christie said previously. “The Delaware Bankruptcy Court’s decision advances that objective and recognises that the interests of the Bahamian Baha Mar entities and their creditors will be best served by the Bahamian proceedings and by negotiations. The government therefore invites all parties to join it in co-operating with the provisional liquidators to bring about a prompt resolution of this matter in the interests of the Bahamian people.”

Baha Mar filed for bankruptcy on June 29, blaming CCA for sub-par work that caused the resort to miss several opening dates.