The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Two senior Ministry of Works officials were yesterday embroiled in an extraordinary bust-up that saw one publicly call for the other’s resignation - a demand that was quickly dismissed.

Melanie Roach, director of works, brushed aside the calls by Omar Archer, registrar of contractors, telling Tribune Business: “I have the people’s work to do.”

Mr Archer, formerly a controversial political activist, could not be reached by Tribune Business for further comment after he accused Ms Roach of giving preferential treatment to certain unnamed contractors.

He added that he “cannot stand back as registrar and allow this woman to continue to act in this capacity that is detrimental.... The time has come for Ms Roach to literally be fired from public works”.

Mr Archer claimed that if this did not occur, the Free National Movement would lose the next general election. Ms Roach, though, vehemently denied his claims and said she had no authority over the selection of contractors for government work. She was also backed by Desmond Bannister, minister of works.

“I don’t pay attention to what’s out there on social media,” Ms Roach said. “I don’t want to know what he said, and I’m not interested in what he said. The only response I had is I have been in the Ministry of Works for 28 years and I have never heard such a thing.

“Never once has my integrity been called into question. I have never had anybody say anything to me like that. I am a busy woman and I have the people’s work to do.”

Mr Archer’s comments hint at a power struggle behind the scenes at the Ministry of Works, and an attempt to force Ms Roach out. His appointment as registrar of contractors coincided with allegations by Leonard Sands that Mr Archer had demanded his resignation as Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) president.

Asked by Tribune Business who had told the BCA Board he needed to be removed, Mr Sands replied: “It is Omar Archer, a political hack. He had no prior idea or knowledge of the BCA beforehand, didn’t know anything about the construction industry or the Act at all.

“He’s going on the last 30 days of knowledge of being in the job, and determined the BCA president must be removed. It’s very dangerous, unprecedented, the way he sought to have a president removed.

“The communication the Board had with him was: Don’t call me again until you have his resignation in hand. That’s dictating. The last communication he made was: If it’s not received by 12pm today [yesterday], he will communicate with the press that the construction industry will move forward without the BCA’s contribution.

Mr Archer at the time denied Mr Sands’s claims of government/political interference, saying he had no influence over the BCA’s internal workings. “That’s news to me,” he said of the resignation.