The Tribune

FORMER Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts has accused Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis of being a “hypocrite” after an appearance at the opening of the SLS hotel brand at Baha Mar on Friday, saying the nation’s leader did everything in his power to “destroy that project for narrow political gain”.

“Bahamians, that was not a hologram or a PR stunt, that was the hypocrite in the flesh; live and in living colour,” Mr Roberts said in a statement released Sunday.

“The opening of the casino hotel, the convention centre, the golf course and club house under the PLP were not actual official openings but PR stunts staged by the PLP government. This according to Minnis and the FNM while he served as opposition leader. Apparently, Baha Mar is only open when the FNM says that it is.

“The facts however tell a totally different story. Former Prime Minister Christie outlined in meticulous detail the strategy and timeline for the phased opening of Baha Mar in a heads of agreement, at press conferences, from the floor of the House [of Assembly], in multiple media interviews and from the rally stage. To date, everything announced by the PLP surrounding the rescue and opening of Baha Mar turned out to be true and are coming to pass just as the former prime minister and former AG outlined them.”

He added: “The unsecured contractors and thousands of displaced Baha Mar employees were paid over $100m at no cost to the tax payers of this country; a buyer with impeccable international credentials in the hospitality industry was secured and Baha Mar was rescued and placed back on track to realise its full economic potential.

“Had Baha Mar gone the route of bankruptcy in Delaware as Minnis and [Dionisio] D’Aguilar had publicly suggested, Baha Mar would still be closed, thousands of Bahamians would still be unemployed and hundreds of contractors would still be owed hundreds of millions of dollars with little to no chance of financial recovery.”