Petty resigns as WSC chair after contract revelation

Sylvanus Petty

As of Thursday, November 16, 2023

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

NORTH Eleuthera MP Sylvanus Petty resigned as executive chairman of the Water and Sewerage Corporation yesterday after the public learned that his daughter was given a contract with the company.

A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis requested Mr Petty’s resignation, with acting Prime Minister Chester Cooper accepting the resignation on the prime minister’s behalf. Mr Davis is in Saudi Arabia.

The WSC’s deputy chairman, Torez Hanna, will be acting executive chairman.

Mr Petty acknowledged under cross-examination in the Adrian Gibson corruption trial last week that his daughter received a contract. The Tribune understands the contract was given to her company, Mainscape Maintenance and Management, which offers landscaping and general maintenance services. Officials have not said whether the contract went through a tendering process.

During cross-examination last week, Mr Petty did not show concern about the contract award.

He said he did not frown on nepotism and had no problem with the company entering into contracts with political allies if they were capable.

“Everyone in The Bahamas was family,” he said.

Earlier this week, Mr Davis said he expected his actions upon finding out that his brother was given two contracts from Bahamas Power & Light in 2012 to influence how officials handled the contract to Mr Petty’s daughter. He later ordered that the contract with the woman be cancelled.

When Mr Davis, as minister of works responsible for BPL under the last Christie administration, learned his brother got contracts from the utility company, he reportedly summoned former BPL chairman Leslie Miller and former Permanent Secretary Colin Higgs and demanded the contracts be cancelled.

“I made it clear that while it may be okay for a contract to be given from the government, it shouldn’t be given from an entity under my portfolio,” he said in 2017 when the matter surfaced as a political issue.