The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

DEMOCRATIC National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney yesterday called for the resignation of Prime Minister Perry Christie after it was revealed that the sale of Baha Mar is not complete, despite Mr Christie telling the country the stalled resort was sold.

At a press conference, Senator McCartney said Mr Christie “disgraced his office, disgraced himself and disgraced his party.” He said the prime minister knew when he announced the sale of Baha Mar last year, that he did not have a completed deal but he chose to “misrepresent the truth for political purposes.”

Last December, Prime Minister Christie announced the sale of Baha Mar to Hong Kong-based conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd (CTFE).

At the time, Mr Christie did not disclose the sale price, adding that the negotiated agreement between CTFE and the resort’s secured creditor, China Export-Import Bank, was still sealed by the court.

However, this week, Graeme Davis, CTFE (Bahamas) president, told international journalists visiting the Bahamas for a conference that Baha Mar will open without its sale being completed.

Mr Davis said, as reported by PressToday: “We’ve made commitments to the islands of the Bahamas, to the government and to the bank that we would open the project even before we close [the deal].

“We will be opening the project on April 21 and it will be in a phased manner. Our flagship property is going to be run by Grand Hyatt.”

Clarifying Mr Davis’s comments, Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, told The Tribune that CTFE’s acquisition of Baha Mar would only close once all construction was complete.

“So to be clear, there has been no sale, so no deal actually exists,” Mr McCartney said in response yesterday. “All that the prime minister has secured is the promise to make a deal, and nothing more. Therefore those promised jobs at Baha Mar are not secure.

“The prime minister knew when the public was demanding answers as to what had been agreed and secured in the sale of this resort, that he had nothing to offer the public so he agreed to have the documents sealed before the courts to hide the truth from the Bahamian people. The prime minister knew he was deceiving the Bahamian people and he went about it in a systematic way. It is now for all to see that the prime minister along with members of his Cabinet worked in a concerted effort to remove the original developer. The prime minister should not be allowed to hold office moving forward.”

Mr McCartney said if the prime minister’s “scheme” was allowed to play out, “he would have been able to prance himself before the Bahamian people during the election cycle to say ‘look at what I’ve done for you,’ but as fate would have it, he has been exposed.”

Mr McCartney said the arrangement the government has with the Chinese will not be honoured if the third party is elected to office and demanded that Mr Christie resign “before he brings more shame to his office and our country.”