The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

BAHA Mar’s Claims Committee Chairman James Smith said Bahamian businesses owed money by the resort are responding slower than expected to the call to submit necessary documents in order to receive ex-gratia payments made available by the Export-Import Bank of China.

This comes as the Claims Committee has completed one goal, paying the 2,000 or so former Bahamian employees of Baha Mar who were terminated last year, giving the workers the salaries, severance pay, accrued vacation pay and notice payments due to termination that was owed to them.

“We had very minimum complaints and even within the range of complaints the differences weren’t much,” Mr Smith said about the payments to employees.

But while the committee’s deadline for processing and dealing with the claims of Bahamian businesses expires in late

December, the committee is nonetheless surprised that less than half of expected claims have been submitted to the group.

“We have started to process the claims for the unsecured creditors and we find that out of the selected amount of those claims, the ones that complied with our calls on our website is probably less than 50 per cent up to last week,” he said. “We are discovering that many of the service providers supplied similar information during the liquidation process and they feel we have it. We are urging them that this is a different committee that is looking into their issues. We are in charge of making this ex-gratia payments so we have our own rules which are outlined on our website and if they submitted similar information before as part of other processes, it should be easy for them to get their hands on the same information again and submit.

“If not, we won’t be able to process their claims and they won’t benefit from this process.”

Some businesses, especially those owed relatively little money, may have decided not to seek remuneration for their services at all, Mr Smith said as he discussed why more businesses haven’t presented their claims.

“Perhaps they’ve absorbed the loss and have written it off,” he said.

It should not be difficult for businesses owed money by Baha Mar to compile necessary information and submit it to the Claims Committee, Mr Smith said.

“When operations at Baha Mar first closed in 2015, with the court proceedings going on, the court had to find out who is owed what and to whom money is owed. Everyone I presume would’ve come forward and submitted something at that time.

“And Baha Mar also had to know that information. So everyone who was seriously engaged in this process would’ve compiled the documentation already and it shouldn’t be a hassle for them to do so now and submit the information to us.”

The form on the Claims Committee’s website asks for documentary evidence of claim, such as copies of relevant invoices and summaries of services rendered and work performed, among other things.

It also requests proof of nationality.

As for the 200 or so people who were associated with Baha Mar but were not employed by the resort, Mr Smith said the committee gave them all a fixed amount of money.

This group included people who completed Baha Mar’s training programme, the Leadership Development Institute, but who were not immediately hired by the resort.

It even included people who failed to complete the training programme but sought compensation, highlighting the Claims Committee’s commitment to pacifying Bahamians connected to the resort regardless of their entitlement.

“It was dicey because there’s always a huge gap for people who were expecting something but had no entitlement whatsoever,” Mr Smith said of the decision to give such people payment.

Meanwhile, foreign former employees of Baha Mar have yet to receive their payments and won’t do so until after Bahamian businesses have received the money owed to them.