The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

CENTRAL Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant yesterday raised concern over the source of the financing used to refurbish the aged Bahamasair fleet.

During his contribution to the 2015/2016 mid-year budget debate, Mr Grant questioned why the Christie administration had not presented any allocations associated with the refurbishment in any of its last two budget presentations.

Mr Grant suggested that Bahamasair’s “bankrupt” status made the airline an unfavourable borrower in the eyes of any lender.

The former Minister of Works and Transport demanded an answer on who financed the loan that enabled the airline’s purchase of five new aircraft. “Where did the $100m come from to re-fleet Bahamasair?” he asked.

“This House had not approved such an expenditure. It is not accounted for in this mid-year budget or any other budget, for that matter.”

In December, during the commissioning ceremony for the first of the five new aircraft, Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, the minister responsible for the airline, said this level of investment had not been put into Bahamasair since April 1990 under a previous Progressive Liberal Party administration. However, he stopped short of detailing the status of the financing.

Again, yesterday, when pressed for the source of funding, Mr Davis refused to clarify the situation. Mr Davis said that the Christie administration had already presented the source of funding directly to Mr Grant and would eventually present it to the public.

However, responding to that assertion, Mr Grant said: “I know of no such financier and had never been made aware of any. Which financial institution in this world will give Bahamasair, which is bankrupt, $100m to purchase aircraft, without a guarantee from the government of The Bahamas?”

During the year ended June 30, 2014, Bahamasair’s liabilities exceeded its current assets by $23.5m, an increase from the previous year’s $22.6m.

Bahamasair now has a financial deficit of $555m.