The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE Christie administration is “fully on track” to honouring its commitment to push for the release of the sealed Supreme Court Baha Mar documents before the scheduled April soft opening of the beleaguered West Bay Street mega resort, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said yesterday.

Mrs Maynard-Gibson also told The Tribune that she is “dismayed” that Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr Hubert Minnis is “rooting against Bahamians” with his continued scepticism over the mega resort’s future, and accused Dr Minnis of doing so for “political gain”.

Mrs Maynard-Gibson also fired a shot at Dr Minnis for former Prime Minister and FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham’s recent suggestions that the Christie administration has not held Baha Mar’s lender and general contractor to account for their obligations. She said she agreed with suggestions put to her recently that Mr Ingraham has now become the FNM’s spokesperson because the party “doesn’t trust (Dr Minnis) to speak”.

In December, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced the official sale of Baha Mar to CTF BM Holdings, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong conglomerate, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd (CTFE).

Apart from failing to reveal the cost at which the shuttered resort was sold, Mr Christie at the time spoke minimally of the details surrounding the deal, adding that it was still sealed by the Supreme Court at the request of the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM). That sale has not been finalised.

Then, after a wave of fierce scrutiny levelled at his administration over the sealing of documents related to the new deal to open Baha Mar, Mr Christie told reporters in January 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 CEXIM Bank, Mr Christie has said.

Mrs Maynard-Gibson said later that month 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.

When asked by The Tribune for an update on that process yesterday, Mrs Maynard-Gibson would only say: “All of the government’s commitments are fully on track”.

She went on to criticise Dr Minnis for “consistently rooting against Bahamians” and also seeking to gain political mileage with his continued criticisms of the government’s handling of the Baha Mar debacle.

Dr Minnis has 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 FNM win the next general election.

Dr Minnis has also criticised the recent transfer of Baha Mar to CTFE, calling it a “great public relations exercise” with no “real significance” .

“I am dismayed that they’ve been consistently rooting against Bahamians,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson said in response. “I recall distinctly your Peter Whiteheads, your Fred Hazelwoods, your Wayne Chee-A-Tows, all saying how grateful they were the Prime Minister had stayed the course and stayed focused and gotten Bahamians paid, Bahamian entrepreneurs paid, $100m, those employees paid all that they were due, and on and on.

“The commitment, more than some $250m to open the enterprise, the confidence shown in the Bahamas by having CTFE, a world class operator at the table investing in the Bahamas at this time in the world’s economy, all of it is good news, all of it’s good for Bahamians, all good for the Bahamas. But for political gain, for what appears to be political gain, you have these people, (Dr Minnis) in particular, rooting against Bahamians. I’m very disappointed by that.”

Of Mr Ingraham’s suggestion last week that the government was not as authoritative as it should have been in holding stakeholders, including CEXIM and general contractor China Construction America (CCA) accountable for failing to deliver what they promised the Christie administration on Baha Mar’s completion, Mrs Maynard-Gibson said: “My answer to that is that I was some place on the weekend, when people were saying how sorry they felt for (Dr Minnis), that the FNM doesn’t trust him to speak, which is why they are bringing Mr Ingraham out. And I have to say that I don’t disagree with that assessment.”

Last week, in the absence of a casino operator license and no definite answers on when guest reservations will be accepted, CCA officially transferred the resort to CTFE. The transfer was executed by CCA handing over to CTFE its temporary certificate of occupancy, which now allows visitors to occupy rooms and utilise other amenities.

At the time, Graeme Davis, CTFE Bahamas president, said the resort would begin taking guest reservations “very soon” with the launch of Baha Mar’s advertising campaign. He went on to suggest that non-paying guests would “fill” the resort on its first day of operation, explaining that guests were “invited” for Baha Mar’s celebration and ribbon cutting to commemorate its opening.