By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
GOVERNMENT officials yesterday rejected concerns of a looming conflict with respect to the government's deliberations on Baha Mar and Minister of Tourism Dionisio D'Aguilar's directorship on the previous resort developer's board, and his public statements on the election campaign trail.
The matter was highlighted by Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts, who suggested on Monday that Mr D'Aguilar's ties to former developer Sarkis Izmirlian put him in a 'conflict of interest' position.
Mr D'Aguilar has rejected the assertion, and yesterday Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest summarily dismissed the prospect.
"No," said Mr Turnquest, "none at all. First off the minister is an honourable gentleman. He's a business person and he's fully, in my view, able to distinguish personal feeling from the interest of the Bahamian people. He does not have an equity interest in CTFE, Baha Mar, the people before, the current people, whoever."
Mr Turnquest added: "He has an ability to bring to the table the best deal for the Bahamian people and at the end of the day the Cabinet of The Bahamas will make the decision."
Since the resort's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Mr D'Aguilar was a leading advocate of Mr Izmirlian's cause, arguing that the project was wrongly stripped from the latter by an alliance between the former Christie administration and the Chinese government-owned lender and contractor.
When CTFE was identified as the prospective buyer late last year, Mr D'Aguilar insisted the Hong Kong-based conglomerate that "unsuited to invest in The Bahamas," citing an alleged "well-documented connection to organised crime in Asia".
In the months before the May 10 general election, he further alleged that CTFE and its owners, the Cheng family, were unsuitable to hold a Bahamian casino licence because they had allegedly been denied such permits by gaming regulators in the US states of Nevada and New Jersey.
His claims sought to link the Cheng family and CTFE's publicly traded subsidiary, New World Development, to concerns that Macau's VIP gaming rooms were vulnerable to exploitation by Chinese/Asian crime gangs known as Triads.
Mr D'Aguilar attempted to link CTFE to this via its investment in Stanley Ho's STDM and SJM companies, which control a significant share of Macau's gambling industry.
CTFE has refuted all claims as "baseless and unfounded," pointing to its strong reputation for business integrity and corporate governance.
Concerns over Mr D'Aguilar's pre-election stance have been compounded by campaign statements made by Dr Minnis concerning the beleaguered mega-resort.
Expanding on the uncertainty surrounding the finality of the resort's sale to CTFE in March, Dr Minnis pledged that his party will "engage and execute a real sale" of the Baha Mar resort "to a qualified and respectable purchaser who believes in Bahamians," should the opposition party win the next general election.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Dr Minnis also said this buyer would use only Bahamian labour to complete the beleaguered resort, while again promising that his party would make public the details relating to the Baha Mar deal and any other government dealings with Chinese investors.
The following day, Dr Minnis added that if the Baha Mar deal does not stand up to public scrutiny, his party reserves the right "to not approve any sale that is not in the best interest of the Bahamian people."
Speaking to Tribune Business about the concerns, and his recent meeting with CTFE on Tuesday, Mr D'Aguilar defended himself this week as a "right-thinking, business-headed" minister of tourism who was simply meeting with the sector's key stakeholders to understand their plans and concerns.
"There was no discussion about ownership. That was certainly not the place for it to be done," Mr D'Aguilar told Tribune Business.
Comments
birdiestrachan 7 years, 6 months ago
of course it is conflict of interest, He was very disrespectful of the owners of the property. and he wants his man Sarkis to have the property. in fact the PM has promised to sell the property when the FNM became the Government. and many who voted FNM want the Government to give the hotel back to Izmirlian How will it be done is beyond me they should know.
Reality_Check 7 years, 6 months ago
Re-post:
D'Aguilar (a/k/a the Customs Duty Dodger) has a very direct conflict of interest in all matters involving Baha Mar, and the fact that he denies it says much about his lack of integrity. The Customs Duty Dodger was a director of Baha Mar at the time it granted many 'favours' to corrupt senior officials and their family members in the last government, including Crooked Christie and his family, the Evil Wicked Witch (Maynard-Gibson) and her family and others. The outrageously generous concessions given to Baha Mar by the last government (that Bahamian taxpayers cannot afford and our country must now borrow to pay) were the obvious quid pro quo for the 'favours' granted by Baha Mar to senior PLP officials at the time D'Aguilar sat on the board of Baha Mar. This constantly yapping white-haired little poodle has cost our country mega-millions of dollars as a result of his role as a director of Baha Mar. As a director he certainly knew full well what corrupt deals were being cut for the outrageous concessions granted to Baha Mar, as did that other Freemason Robert "Sandy" Sands. Of course Sandy Sands's role at Baha Mar has not changed since the government has changed.....he must now just go about facilitating the cutting of a whole new set of corrupt deals with senior officials of a new government, no doubt with the help of his close friend, the Customs Duty Dodger! By appointing the constantly yapping white-haired little poodle as Minister of Tourism, Minnis failed to recognize the grave conflict of interest the little poodle has in all matters involving Baha Mar....and that certainly does not speak well of Minnis's own ability to see and avoid serious conflicts of interest that usually underly very corrupt activities of one kind or another.
islandlad 7 years, 6 months ago
Very short reply, his questions and request for answers to such have not changed for 6 years of which he has been envolved in Baha Mar. the "Concern" of "Canibalism" was a question before the previous opening and he defended it and the positioning statements NOTHING has changed and the Marketing Plan remains the same, so why is he Now concerned and interested? Absolutely a conflict of interest.
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