The Tribune

WHEN The Tribune reported last year about an underwater exploration group having detected 13 shipwrecks in Bahamian waters, it was described as a “billion dollar” opportunity.

The reality, according to National Security Minister Wayne Munroe, has been “unsatisfactory” in terms of the royalties received from treasure hunters.

A licence for salvaging treasure from undersea wrecks was granted to Carl Allen, the multi-millionaire owner of Walker’s Cay, and his company.

He was searching for the sunken treasure of the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas, believed to be off the coast of Grand Bahama and Walker’s Cay.

The deal was that the explorers would keep 75 percent of the treasure, and the Bahamian people would get 25 percent. The idea is that the company does the work of finding and retrieving the treasure, and the Bahamas gets a split of the proceeds.

There is dissatisfaction, it would seem with how much we are getting out of the expedition, and part of that is because of the apparent lack of a chain of evidence to prove how much has been retrieved.

Mr Munroe said: “The whole way it operates is unsatisfactory. It’s always unsatisfactory when somebody comes and says this is yours, without any sort of way to audit, confirm or evaluate whether what they’re giving you is what you’re truly entitled to.”

This isn’t to say there is anything suspicious going on – just that according to Mr Munroe there is a lack of clarity in overseeing the process.

Mr Allen, meanwhile, has posted a video clip saying his company is already recovering gems and pendants from the ocean floor.

Just to be clear, leaving the treasure at the bottom of the ocean benefits no one. And if we’re going to permit people to retrieve such treasure, it needs to be through a process that is clear, so that everything is declared and its value assessed. That said, as the problems over the process to give scientific exploration permits has shown, that process can’t be slow and clumsy as to stop the exploration by itself.

We need something clear, concise, that encourages exploration, but which gives The Bahamas an appropriate level of compensation.

Is that what we have now? It would appear not. So it’s up to the current government to come up with a streamlined alternative.

Clarity should always be the goal – and when things aren’t clear, it leaves room for problems to develop, no matter how good the intentions of all concerned might be.

Will we see that clarity develop? Watch this space…

Ambassador’s residence

Speaking of clarity, that is what the FNM is calling for over the expenditure on the ambassador’s residence in Belgium that Labour Minister Keith Bell claims carries a price tag of more than $1m.

But wait a minute, this is the FNM that was in office less than a year ago. They want clarity over the expenditure made on their watch.

The ministers that were in position are still a part of the party – the former Prime Minister is one of the party’s current MPs, shouldn’t they know themselves how much money they were spending?

FNM leader Michael Pintard wants a full report to expand on the “poor quality” document presented so far, but his own team ought to have their own records to provide a full answer and rebuttal if necessary.

We can absolutely support calls for government to provide more clarity – but come on, when you’ve just been in office, you shouldn’t need to call for clarity over what you yourselves did.