The Tribune

FOR much of the pandemic so far, many businesses have been hanging on and waiting for better days.

So it is with considerable delight that we see Atlantis has not only survived through the dark days of flights being shut down and lockdowns across the country, but it has reached a point where it can give staff a pay rise as well.

The rise, starting from April 25, will be three percent across the board for its unionised staff, and between zero and five percent for non-union staff.

The workers understandably will be pleased to have the extra pay in their pockets, but it is what this indicates for the economy at large that should give the rest of us comfort.

If there were doubts about the days to come, the company would not be risking extra cost on its bottom line, so this is a sign that Atlantis sees the worst days behind us.

Indeed, the president of the resort, Audrey Oswell, paid tribute to the workers of the resort, saying: “Despite the many challenges that COVID has sent our way, our team has remained focused and your hard work has produced tangible results. We could not have gotten through this time without your commitment.”

Despite that, Ms Oswell noted that the resort is not yet back to 2019 volumes – but it is promising nonetheless. Put that alongside the rise in cruise ship traffic at the port and it shows that, while the recovery from COVID is far from over – indeed, COVID itself is not yet a thing of the past – we are certainly on the right path.

The chief executive of the port, Michael Maura, revealed in fact that vessel occupancy hit a post-pandemic record on Friday of 91 percent.

There has been a change for cruise visitors too, he said – with cruise passengers now no longer needing to wear their masks outdoors when visiting. That may well bring some concerns over different treatment for tourists and Bahamians – but that there are visitors here to be talking about shows that the recovery continues.

It’s too early to fully breathe a sigh of relief, but it is good to see such positive signs.

Shane Gibson

The former Minister of Labour under the PLP government of Perry Christie, Shane Gibson, was acquitted of 13 bribery charges in 2019.

He had been accused of soliciting and accepting more than $200,000 in bribes from Jonathan Ash for expediting payments the contractor was owed for work done after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Mr Gibson’s lawyers said his case was tainted with “wickedness” and “injustice”.

Yesterday, the current government reached a settlement with him in his lawsuit claiming malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.

We do not know how much Mr Gibson received in his settlement, which has a confidentiality provision.

Such a provision was criticised by current National Security Minister Wayne Munroe in 2018, when he was in private practice, when he said that the reason to disclose such settlements was “it permits scrutiny to see if there has been an even-handed application of a policy. It also prevents politicians talking tough in public about somebody, then settling quietly behind the scenes. Disclosure will also tend to expose if a government or a politician is using public funds improperly either to benefit persons of a particular class, to give money to your boys or to discriminate against other persons and to make other people go through a lot of challenges.”

We would agree with Mr Munroe, and we would add that it is public money being used for the settlement.

Failure to disclose will only lead to wild speculation as to the amount and the process used to reach that agreement. Mr Gibson was acquitted swiftly by his jurors, reportedly widely by all. The same openness would benefit the resolution of the lawsuit.