The Tribune

By Diane Phillips

It would be hard to find a government entity riddled with more scandal and strife than the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Sciences Institute (BAMSI) but for all of its missteps, mistakes and headline-grabbing hurdles – most self-afflicted – BAMSI appears headed toward a title of most unlikely success story of the year.

First, a confession. I don’t think governments anywhere should be in the business of business where there is an appetite for a private sector owner and operator. So no one is more surprised than I am at the turnaround at BAMSI.

From the beginning, BAMSI’s footings in Andros got off on swamp turf despite what I believe was then-BAMSI president Dr Godfrey Eneas’ very best intentions. The mission was ambitious: create a place where Bahamians could learn agriculture and marine science skills, tools that would help diversify the economy and boost food security. As long ago as 2011, Minister of Tourism and Aviation Sen Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace chided The Bahamas for importing up to $500 million in food to satisfy local consumption and a vibrant tourism industry.

When ground was broken in November 2013, BAMSI was posited as the spark plug to ignite Andros’ sagging economy. Instead, everything about the construction was like a bad play with villainous actors and one dramatic scene after another. Questions about how contracts were awarded, rumblings that subcontracted workers were not being paid or paid on time, construction delays, missed deadlines, the appointment of a foreign lead consultant with a “controversial past” including resigning from his post in Jamaica over questions surrounding his academic qualifications.

Then, the big setback – fire allegedly set by a disgruntled worker (later cleared in a jury trial), an act of arson destroying the nearly completed dorms and the revelation that the entire project was uninsured. What was first labelled as a small repair of $120,000 mushroomed into a need to find $5.5 million for labs, roads and rebuilds. Punch columnist Nicki Kelly summed it up saying “the fire at BAMSI exposed the lies and illegalities that have become the hallmark of this project since it was first conceived” and the late Larry Smith in a Tough Call column in this newspaper detailed every step (as only he could do so brilliantly) of what appeared to be headed for ultimate disaster for BAMSI.

So it is not with a little bit of surprise that BAMSI has emerged an unlikely success story, but success it unquestionably is. It now offers degrees in Agriculture, Aquaculture, Marine Science, Agri-Business and Environmental Science. The current executive director, Dr Rovenia Hanna, who I have not met, plans to introduce a degree in Business and Food and Nutrition. There are 60 students and that number is expected to double by next year. BAMSI has signed with Hopedale Farms to make basic backyard farming skills available for Nassauvians. In January, it held its first pop up farmers’ market on Gladstone Road. The turnout was overwhelming and BAIC (Bahamas Agriculture & Industrial Corporation) which has responsibility for BAMSI announced it had taken in $14,000 in one day. The farmers’ markets have continued to draw hundreds, including one at Elizabeth Estates Park in eastern New Providence last Saturday. Even with four cashiers, the lines were achingly long and pointed out what still needs to be corrected if the success story is to have a future.

To the outsider, it appears BAMSI is making the improvements it needs to on the inside. But it lacks the same attention to customer service that plagues nearly every government entity. Its current Nassau outlet location on East Bay Street is horribly inconvenient and it’s only because there is parking available across the street and people are willing to chance running across a few lanes of fast-moving traffic to get onions or tomatoes that are fresh and fairly priced that there is any business there at all.

Long lines at farmers’ markets could be easily resolved if there were scales throughout instead of at the pop-up point of sale.

There may always be questions swirling around BAMSI just because it collects cash and is a government concern, but make no mistake about its impact – it is working. Bahamians are returning to growing produce full or part-time and Bahamians are eating it up, a once disaster transformed into a win for all poised to reach the next level with just a few more steps.

We can do without speeding prison buses at peak hours

With utmost respect to Minister of National Security, the Hon Marvin Dames, a man of immense capability to whom we owe appreciation for a reduction in violent crime, will someone in charge of scheduling please stop putting lives at risk, including those of schoolchildren, by sending screeching, screaming, speeding vans carrying prisoners to court appearances during peak traffic hours? 

The prison bus barrels down the road doing speeds we could only dream of achieving on a speedway and they do it in the midst of jammed, bumper-to-bumper traffic crawling at zero miles per hour. The van’s sirens are screaming, loudspeaker at full roar ordering “Move over”. And we trembling innocents looking for a place to pull over with no loudspeaker to shout back to ask “Where, where would you like us to go? Will this concrete wall do?”

It’s not as though the prisoners have a terribly busy schedule. Couldn’t they go to court a little bit later? Or better yet, appear by Skype. Gee, large companies all over the world do it.

And while we’re on the traffic kick, let’s talk parking with Naughty.

Naughty’s column the other week about inconsiderate drivers who think reserved for handicapped parking signs don’t apply to them was the topic of conversation more than once this week – usually arising when there was another offence and the observer would say, “Yeah, just like those people who think it’s okay to screech into a handicapped spot, hop out and sprint into the store.” Congrats to Naughty for keeping the conversation going just as David McLaughlin and others are doing with the dangers of distracted driving. Here’s another suggestion for the spots reserved for physically disabled: Place the handicapped sticker on the vehicle’s licence plate as they do in many other places, making it easy to spot.

Now that we can no longer see who a car is registered to, our windshield inspection habits borne of an instinctive nosiness to know who is driving that luxury vehicle have dwindled and we may not know when there is a true offender who should have RUDE written on his car and when a high truck, for instance, has a small sticker inside above the rear view mirror where security in a golf cart or on foot has a hard time seeing it. Nothing like a dose of conscience to alter behaviour – at least for some. Then there are those who think it is okay to barge and there is little we can do about them except hope their next step is smack into a deposit by a very large, overfed canine with a bad stomach.