The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WORKS and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears says officials have identified numerous irregularities with contracts the Bahamas Public Parks and Beaches Authority issued before the September 16 general election.

St Barnabas MP Shanendon Cartwright, the executive chairman of the body at that time, countered yesterday that he operated fairly and sought to bring credit to the organisation.

Golden Isles MP Vaughn Miller, however, rebuffed him, saying he was treated in a “low down, egregious way” before the election.

“As a matter of fact,” he claimed, “leading up to the elections, as the Member of Parliament, my opponent was treated as the Member of Parliament. Contracts were issued in excess of $200k; only under $5,000 I was able to access and the record would reflect that.”

In response, Mr Cartwright said: “I vehemently resent the aspersion the member is trying to cast on this member to call my integrity into question relative to the assignment of contracts. The member can surely make the statement that he wishes that she doesn’t feel like he was dealt with fairly, I have no issues with that. But to suggest that this member tried personally to deprive or disadvantage the member, I’ve not been about that in politics.”

For his part, Mr Sears said the permanent secretary of his ministry and the management team of the authority brought concerns to him on Friday about how the authority handled contracts.

“According to the permanent secretary, shortly before the general election, all of the contracts were renewed and according to the management team some of these contractors had not been performed satisfactorily,” he said.

“Nevertheless there was instruction that every contract be renewed. Secondly, some contracts were not signed by the authority and the contractors purported to perform notwithstanding the fact that the contracts were only signed by the contractor but not the authority. The report also said that after the general election had been called there was a rash of contracts issued, which they are seeking to reconcile.

“Fourthly, I was advised that contracts were issued without board approval and the Act requires that the authority act on the basis of board resolution. Fifth, that contracts were issued but some of those contracts which had been issued had not been communicated to the accounts department,” Mr Sears said.

“Number six, that there were duplication of contracts and second was the issue of (the) inspectorate. I’ve asked that there be a reconciliation. I’m only reporting what was reported to me as the responsible minister and when the board is fully constituted it will be a matter for the board of the authority to reconcile and then report to me as the responsible minister and the issue of the inspectorate and the quality of the inspection and so on will be addressed.

“Since the question was raised, the authority is being fully constituted and since the transfer from the Ministry of Environment to the Ministry of Works we have insisted that there be a proper reconciliation so that upon receipt of it we will be fully seized of what would have happened in the first part of the fiscal year and we will know what we are dealing with,” Mr Sears said.

Mr Cartwright, in response, said he performed his duties without an eye to political considerations.

“So let me just say for the record that we would have done our endeavour best to ensure that there was a balanced approach,” he said. “Many times we would’ve done our best to ensure that we meet the needs of every Member of Parliament.

“The member of Fort Charlotte also mentioned duplications. On being appointed to the authority the issue of duplication was always a challenge that we sought to rectify…there was nothing sinister about duplications. It happens in the assignment of road contracts and so forth and it’s something that always presents a challenge that we endeavour to clear up.

“Also on the matter that the honourable mentioned about contracts prior to the election, contracts were already in train prior to the calling of an election on August 19. These were not done as a result of the election being called. After August 19, the process still had to be concluded, so it was not a deluge or mad rush and not to suggest honourable member that you said that, I’m just trying to bring clarification.

“A lot of times when we’re seeking to balance this approach to ensure that the opportunities that are there for everybody, and I emphasise again Madam Speaker, what we are most proud of is that the regular Joe Blow off of the street who was unaffiliated with any political party was able to come to the authority and to enquire about the opportunities that were there, young men and young women, and we were very proud of that.

“This member has come into politics to operate a certain way. It may not be perfect in terms of certain requests that were made, and so I just want the Bahamian public to know that we operated in a way that we thought would bring credit to the authority. Obviously there may have been things that could have been done better. When I was appointed, I fully acknowledged the improvements that were made by the chairman prior to me and then we improved on a lot of systems that were in place.”