The Tribune

LATE yesterday afternoon Prime Minister Christie took the “Shaunae Miller” Olympic dive to the micro-phones to give the Bahamian people the first bit of concrete news as to the future of the shuttered Baha Mar resort.

In fact the announcement that Bahamians have been waiting for for over a year was made two hours after Supreme Court Justice Ian Winder approved an agreement signed earlier in the day by the Bahamas Government and the Export-Import Bank of China.

Mr Christie is to be congratulated for getting this far, and those Bahamians whose financial future depended on the resort’s opening were present at yesterday’s meeting to give him an encouraging pat on the back.

However, we must take issue with a part of his statement:

“The Baha Mar companies owed money to thousands of Bahamian creditors when they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy,” Mr Christie said. “Under their Chapter 11 efforts, our people had little prospect of being paid anything. Under this agreement, made today, funds will be made available to enable them to receive a significant part, and possibly ALL of the value of their claims.”

This is not completely true. When the Baha Mar developer filed for Chapter 11 it was made clear that all creditors — including the EXIM Bank — would be paid in full. All Bahamians, including those who had been employed, but no longer had a job, would be covered.

In addition to this, early in April, developer Sarkis Izmirlian asked the president of the EXIM Bank to accept his offer to complete and open the stalled resort, promising to rehire Bahamian employees while ensuring that the bank would not have to take a discount on its debt.

Mr Izmirlian’s offer also would have ensured that unsecured creditors would be paid.

The letter was a follow-up to the offer he made to the bank on January 11. Mr Izmirlian received no reply.

In view of this and the time that so many Bahamians, both businessmen and employees, have had to wait, there should be no talk about receiving a “significant part” of what is rightfully theirs. After all, this has not only been a serious strain on their businesses, but also on our economy. It has justified Moody’s in down grading this country’s credit rating by one notch — just one notch above dropping the Bahamas in the waste basket as “junk.”

This country and its people have been put through too much for anyone — particularly the ones who carry most of the blame — to even consider offering a partial repayment. Under this agreement for a project that should have been opened in December 2014 it should be payment in full to all creditors. And they should be satisfied with no less.

Also the only contractors receiving high praise for their work at Baha Mar — particularly the finished work — were Bahamians. There is no reason why Bahamians should not be the ones to complete the work in their own country. After all the only work that we heard complained about was that of the Chinese workmen. It is understood that higher skilled finished workers were requested from China, which, as far as we know, never arrived.

Why go to China when we have skilled Bahamians just down the road to do the job? Observing the workers at the Pointe, there are so many from China, that as one Bahamian quipped, the only Bahamian that he saw was the man holding up the STOP sign to halt the traffic so that they could cross the road to go for their lunch break.

Also, before a decision is made as to who has been selected as the “world-class hotel and casino operator” to whom Baha Mar is to be sold, Bahamians should be informed and given a complete background check of the new owners.

Because in the words of Singapore’s great leader, Lee Kuan Yew: “We don’t want any of the activities that go on in Macau here.”

And anyone who knows about the seamy side of Macau, should know exactly to what we refer. After being a “nation for sale” we cannot afford to be scorned for earning another equally undesirable name.