The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE release of the sealed Supreme Court Baha Mar documents will take place this month, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson assured yesterday, although it is uncertain whether the documents will be made public before the government’s self-imposed deadline.

Mrs Maynard-Gibson told reporters outside Cabinet yesterday morning that the documents would be released some time this month. However, she declined to specify whether the documents would be released prior to the April 21 soft opening of Baha Mar, as she has previously declared, or after.

In January, following a wave of fierce scrutiny levelled at his administration over the sealing of documents related to the new Baha Mar deal with CTF BM Holdings, a subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd (CTFE) the month before, Prime Minister Perry Christie told reporters that Mrs Maynard-Gibson had been directed to have the records made public at the “earliest opportunity”.

The documents were sealed at the request of the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM), Mr Christie has said.

Later that month, Mrs Maynard-Gibson said that the release of the Baha Mar documents would “most definitely” be released before the soft opening of the resort, which is set for April 21.

As recently as last week, she told The Tribune that the Christie administration is “fully on track” to honouring its commitment to push for the release of the documents.

When asked for a date when the documents might be released, Mrs Maynard-Gibson said yesterday: “During the month of April.” When asked if this would happen before or after April 21, Mrs Maynard-Gibson gave the same response.

Last month, former Court of Appeal President Dame Joan Sawyer said there is much confusion over how the judgment of a publicly-heard civil case could be sealed so that no one, outside the judge who heard the case, Mrs Maynard-Gibson and lawyers for the parties involved, would know the contents.

Dame Joan said clearly where there was no matter of defence, public safety or public order in effect to cause the decision not to be made public.

Dame Joan said “on the other hand it may be argued that because Crown land and money from the Consolidated Fund was used to pay employees of Baha Mar (money that was said to be owed to China Construction Company for the construction of the new road from the airport) that the interests of justice required the decision and the reason for it to be made public, especially when it appears to reasonable persons that there may have been a conflict of interest on the part of the government’s main adviser, the learned Attorney General, who has subsequently reported that there was a sale to a Hong Kong entity and then that the sale is not complete.”

Mr Christie announced the official sale of Baha Mar to CTF BM Holdings in December, at the time stating that the resort was set for a phased opening beginning in April, 2017, and a full completion by this fall.

However, Mr Christie did not disclose the sale price of Baha Mar, adding that details of the deal are still sealed by the Supreme Court at the request of CEXIM.