The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORMER PLP Labour Minister Shane Gibson took “advantage” of a businessman by encouraging the man to pay him over $300,000 to ensure the contractor would be paid for hurricane clean-up efforts, a Crown attorney claimed yesterday.

James Guthrie, QC, said Gibson solicited $330,000 from contractor Jonathan Ash over three months in 2017 in exchange for him using his government position to ensure Ash would be paid the $1m plus he was owed by the government in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

Mr Guthrie conceded that as Mr Ash was involved in making the various payments, it is fair to assert that he partook in the criminal acts.

However, Mr Guthrie said it was Gibson who instigated the offences, and that he had “no business” accepting the “dirty money” from Mr Ash, who is a Crown witness.

“The minister acted unlawfully, it is a breach of the criminal law, and it is a serious crime,” Mr Guthrie said.

His comments came during his opening address to the nine-member jury during the first day of Gibson’s bribery trial before Justice Carolita Bethel.

According to Mr Guthrie, after Category 5 Hurricane Matthew battered the Bahamas, and New Providence in particular, in October 2016, the government spearheaded a “huge” clean-up operation. Mr Ash, of Ash Enterprises and Trucking Services, was one of many persons involved in the efforts.

Mr Ash, Mr Guthrie said, owns a number of trucks and heavy equipment and was able to call on “large numbers of men” to perform the “heavy work” the clean-up operation required.

According to Mr Guthrie, Mr Ash began working in late-2016 after meeting with Urban Renewal Commission Deputy Director Gregory Butler. He first worked on Bay Street, then the Centreville constituency for three months. Afterwards, Mr Ash was asked to take over three dump sites – the city dump, the dump at the sports centre, and Bacardi Road – Mr Guthrie said.

Doing such large amounts of work and employing so many workers meant Mr Ash was billing the government “large amounts of money,” the prosecutor said. But the government was slow to pay, despite owing Mr Ash upwards of $1m, the English attorney said. The contractor, Mr Guthrie said, “was desperate to be paid”.

Mr Guthrie said as a result of the slow payments, one of the people Mr Ash complained to was Jack Thompson, then the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister. Mr Thompson consequently referred Mr Ash to Deborah Bastian, through whom he eventually met Gibson.

At some point, a meeting between Mr Ash, Gibson, and Bastian was held at a “pink building” on Nassau Street, Mr Guthrie said. Mr Guthrie said that meeting is a “crucial part of the case” that the jury will have to consider in its deliberations.

The English attorney said “almost immediately” after that meeting, Mr Ash began to make payments to Bastian. However, those payments were actually intended for and accepted by Gibson, the Crown argued. Mr Guthrie said after a while, Mr Ash started making the payments directly to the former Cabinet minister.

Thus, Mr Guthrie asserted that the payments were bribes and that if Mr Ash paid Gibson the requested amount, he would see to it that the man’s bills were paid “as night follows day”.

Yesterday, Mr Butler took the witness stand and explained how Mr Ash first became involved in the clean-up efforts.

Mr Butler explained that after the hurricane, Urban Renewal’s (UR) staff had been asked to report to NEMA to assist in the clean-up efforts. He said they were subsequently assigned to different constituencies; he was assigned to Centreville, the constituency he lives in. Mr Butler said he, a man identified as Superintendent Richardson, and a Mr Cambridge were in charge of the area.

Mr Butler said their job as UR staff was to go the various constituencies along with NEMA to assess residents’ living conditions and to what extent their homes needed repairs. Mr Butler said UR staff reported directly to UR Co-Chairs Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and Algernon Allen.

Mr Butler said he first met Mr Ash sometime after Hurricane Matthew had passed while he was getting gas at the Ministry of Works. Mr Butler said at the time, he did not know who Mr Ash was.

He said Mr Ash spoke to him about getting work, but as he was not in the position to authorise anything, Mr Butler said he referred the contractor to the late Bruce Walker, who at the time was the coordinator for the clean-up efforts.

The witness said when Mr Ash first got involved in the clean-up, he was under the impression that Mr Ash was from the Centreville constituency. He explained that when he heard Mr Ash’s surname, he remembered that a family by that name lived just down the street from him.

Mr Butler said he recommended Mr Ash on that basis. However, he said he later found out the man was not a resident of Centreville.

When questioned by Gibson’s attorney Damian Gomez, QC, if he received any money from Mr Ash for recommending him to Mr Walker, Mr Butler adamantly replied: “No, sir”. Mr Gomez then suggested that Mr Ash said Mr Butler did in fact receive money from him, to which Mr Butler said loudly: “So I’ve heard.”

Mr Butler said once engaged to conduct clean-up efforts in Centreville, the contractors would then be given responsibility for a polling division. Afterwards, they could hire workers, but they had to be residents of Centreville.

Mr Butler said contractors were paid by way of a time-keeping system. He said in the morning, everyone would report to UR’s Centreville office. Afterwards, he said, he, Supt Richardson and Mr Cambridge would monitor their activities to ensure they were being done.

Once UR was done with the time sheets, they would be signed by Mr Butler, Supt Richardson and Mr Cambridge, and forwarded to NEMA.

Mr Butler said after being paid one week, Mr Ash indicated that the amount on his cheque was incorrect. He said the complaint came in October, some two to three weeks after the clean-up efforts commenced.

Mr Butler said he spoke with Supt Richardson, who said Bastian, who was stationed at NEMA, should look into it to see if Mr Ash was owed anything. Mr Butler said he also spoke face-to-face with Bastian about the issue, though he said he couldn’t remember if Mr Ash was present during that conversation.

Mr Butler acknowledged that from his recollection, Mr Ash did a “reasonable amount” of work in the Centreville constituency. However, Mr Butler said he was transferred elsewhere after Mr Ash made his complaint.

Gibson is charged with 15 counts of bribery. It is alleged that between January 16 and 19, 2017, and being concerned with Bastian, he had solicited $250,000 from Mr Ash as an inducement to or a reward for him giving assistance or using his influence in approving outstanding payments owed to Ash by the government.

The Crown further asserts that on various dates between January 19-31, 2017 Gibson, still concerned with Bastian, consequently accepted $100,000 worth of payments from Mr Ash. Then between January 30 and February 28 of that year, Gibson accepted several cash payments from Mr Ash totaling some $100,000.

Between February 10 and March 27, 2017, Gibson solicited and accepted a total of $80,000 each from Ash, but this time he was not concerned with Bastian, the Crown maintains. The Crown claims Mr Ash initially made the payments to Gibson through Bastian for the first set of payments totaling $200,000, but made them directly to Gibson for the remaining $80,000.

Gibson denies the allegations.