The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest said yesterday that Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller’s recent comments about a purported payout guideline for Bahamian creditors owed by Baha Mar is an example of why the Christie administration must be more forthcoming with details of the new deal to remobilise the resort.

Prime Minister Perry Christie said last week that Baha Mar’s Bahamian creditors and contractors will be paid a significant portion, if not all, of the money owed to them.

However, in an interview with The Tribune on Sunday, Mr Miller said he has been informed that some creditors may end up with only about 50 per cent of what is owed to them.

“I understand that those (owed) up to a half a million will get full pay and after that you will have to negotiate and hopefully you’ll get 50 per cent,” Mr Miller, whose company Sunburst Paints is also owed money by Baha Mar, said. “That’s what I am told.”

Government officials did not respond yesterday to The Tribune’s request for confirmation on Mr Miller’s claim; nor could members of a recently formed committee designed to handle the claims of creditors and employees and give payouts to them.

Contacted yesterday, committee member and former State Minister for Finance James Smith said the group’s first meeting was to be held yesterday evening to determine the way forward.

“I have nothing in terms of how this will operate and I don’t know how much money they’re dealing with,” Mr Smith said.

It’s unclear how many of Baha Mar’s Bahamian creditors are owed more than half a million dollars.

When Baha Mar filed for bankruptcy in a Delaware court last year, documents filed indicated that some Bahamian companies were owed more than half a million ,included Yates-Osprey Joint Venture, ($5,281,681), Cable Bahamas ($1,435,631), Cable Beach Resort Association ($1,219,372) and Island Site Development ($1,153,050).

Mr Miller’s statement, nonetheless, highlights the fact that significant details about the terms of the agreement struck between the government and the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM) remain unknown.

“There is a vast gulf between what Leslie Miller said and what the prime minister certainly implied,” Mr Turnquest said when contacted yesterday. “The reality is everyone expects to be made whole. But if the government is going to make a deal with the offender, then I would assume that every vendor that is aggrieved will be rightly annoyed.”

Mr Turnquest also said a parliamentary debate is required before the government could take certain actions with respect to an agreement with CEXIM.

This, he said, includes matters related to debt forgiveness.

Last week, Mr Christie said CEXIM agreed to repay “some” of the debt owed to government entities.

Mr Turnquest questioned whether some of the money that would otherwise be repaid in full to the government will be paid to employees in the form of severance, accrued vacation pay, unpaid salaries and the like.

“I was under the impression that when employees were severed everyone was paid off,” he said. “I’m not sure what this whole salary thing is about. It is imperative that we know what it is government has agreed to. If the government is going to be chipping in money, either through forgiveness of past debts or land grants or actual contributions, we have a right to know and it ought to be something brought to Parliament and debated. It’s not the prime minister’s money; it’s not the PLP’s money. It’s the people of The Bahamas’ money. We have every right to know what is being conceded on their behalf since it’s about the Bahamian people’s benefits and not the government’s assets.”

In April 2016, Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian made an offer to CEXIM, stressing that his team had the best chance of getting the resort open. Although the details of Mr Izmirlian’s offer were not revealed, a letter sent to the president of CEXIM said his deal would ensure that the bank did not take a discount on its debt and would ensure payments to unsecured creditors.

In view of Mr Miller’s comments on Sunday, one source close to Baha Mar questioned why the government did not push for the bank to accept Mr Izmirlian’s deal, which the source said would have guaranteed full payments to Bahamian creditors and contractors.