The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The deputy prime minister yesterday said the Davis administration is seeking to determine whether Parliament was misled over a contract seemingly related to heritage and cultural tourism.

Chester Cooper, also minister of tourism, investments and aviation, told the House of Assembly during his contribution to the Speech from the Throne debate that the Government plans to examine the Hansard, the official record of parliamentary proceedings, to determine if the previous administration had made full and accurate disclosures.

“We are requesting updates from Hansard of previous presentations in the House, where it was denied that there was this contract with persons connected to the previous administration,” Mr Cooper said. “If this House was misled, we will let the Bahamian people know.”

Mr Cooper did not identify the persons, subject or contract he was talking about. However, his departure from his written presentation came after he talked about heritage and cultural tourism, referring to “the restoration and preservation of historical sites, physical assets, and the cultural patrimony that reside at the heart of the uniqueness and authenticity of our tourism proposition”.

The deputy prime minister pledged that this would not be done “in the manner presented by the previous administration”, adding: “We will restore the historical sites in a transparent way, not in the manner proposed by the previous administration.”

All this suggests that Mr Cooper was referring to the agreement for the Public-Private Investments (PPIL) group - whose principals include both Carl Culmer, the Free National Movement’s (FNM) chairman, and Dr Nigel Lewis, the party’s 2021 election campaign co-ordinator - to take over and manage Nassau’s key historical sites.

Joshua Sears, the former prime minister’s senior policy adviser, told this newspaper just prior to the September 16 election that the two sides had “finalised all agreements” and were working towards its implementation and the transition to PPIL’s management.

The sites covered by the PPIL deal include Nassau’s three forts, Charlotte, Fincastle and Montague; the Queen’s Staircase (66 Steps) and Water Tower; the Pompey Museum; Botanical Gardens; and the National Public Library.

Mr Cooper’s comments relating to the Hansard review are likely to refer to the clash between Dr Minnis and Glenys Hanna-Martin, the former Opposition MP for Englerston, during the summer’s 2021-2022 Budget debate when the then-prime minister effectively denied there had been any agreement signed to outsource management of Nassau’s historical sites.

The deputy prime minister, meanwhile, also confirmed Tribune Business’ revelations that the ITM/Royal Caribbean deal to acquire the Grand Lucayan had been watered down to such an extent that the joint venture would have received a loan from the Government to finance the property’s redevelopment.... which would not occur until the late 2020s.

“I begged the former administration not to purchase this property. I take no pleasure in being right,” Mr Cooper said. “In fact, the deal the former administration was prepared to enter into was worse than I thought.

“After the Government pumped over $150m into this property, the group at the table wanted a loan from the Government to develop the property, which they were only interested in doing in the second half of the decade.”

Declining to provide further details, Mr Cooper said the $100m in taxpayer subsides provided to aviation-related state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Bahamasair and Nassau Flight Services “must be reduced”.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Bahamasair was losing an average of $20m a year. And taxpayers have pumped more than $90m into Bahamasair since the pandemic began,” he added. “Nassau Flight Services is another beleaguered public entity receiving subventions to the tune of $5m a year....

“We are currently pumping more than $50m a year in government subsidies to the sector. We are pumping in the region of $100m this year into SOEs overall. This must be prudently managed. This must be reduced. And almost everybody understands that this is not sustainable.”