By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
LEADER of the Democratic National Alliance Branville McCartney claimed yesterday that it was Prime Minister Perry Christie who ordered Renward Wells to sign a letter of intent to build a $650 million waste-to-energy plant at the New Providence landfill.
Mr Wells, the member of Parliament for Bamboo Town, is parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works.
Mr McCartney said he was reliably informed that the reason Mr Christie has not fired Mr Wells or pressured him to resign, is because Mr Christie was the one who told Mr Wells to sign the letter.
He said the government’s silence on the issue is “disrespectful” to the Bahamian people and that Mr Christie “must come clean” and tell the Bahamian people what really happened.
“We have information from reliable sources (on) who instructed Mr Wells to sign the letter of intent,” Mr McCartney said at a press conference at his law office, Halsbury Chambers, yesterday. “Our sources indicate that the Prime Minister himself did it.”
“But we find it amazing that as a result of the Prime Minister asking Mr Wells to sign the letter of intent, he then turned around and asked him to resign. Our sources – and we are reliably informed – say there seems to be some type of battle within the leadership of the PLP between the Prime Minister and the deputy prime minister. One party wishes for a particular group to be involved with waste to energy and the other party wishes for another group to be involved with waste to energy.
“. . . Hence we have this confusion where everyone has gone silent and we have the Prime Minster saying one thing and the deputy prime minister saying something else. We can’t live like this.”
Mr McCartney said something “stinks” about this entire issue and the Prime Minister needs to tell the Bahamian people the truth sooner rather than later.
“We are calling on the Prime Minister to come clean and explain to the Bahamian people what transpired.”
Last month, The Nassau Guardian reported Mr Christie had asked Mr Wells to resign.
Last week, a well-placed source within the government said Mr Wells would resign last Wednesday and would address the matter in the House of Assembly. However Mr Wells did not resign and later told reporters he had no plans to. Mr Wells added that he would speak to the issue when “my leader speaks to it.”
Mr McCartney questioned why Mr Wells is still in his post if he was asked to step down by the nation’s chief.
“As a matter of fact, it has been blatantly and openly said by Mr Wells that he would not resign. Well if I were the Prime Minister, he would be fired before the words came out of his mouth,” the DNA leader said.
“We have reliable sources that something stinks with this deal and this government is quiet and once again caught up in foolishness. We ask the Prime Minister that if he did not instruct Mr wells to sign the letter of intent to please say that. We ask this Prime Minister, the number one public servant in the country who works for us, who we pay, who the Bahamian people put there, who is mandated to act on our behalf, that if he did not sign or ask Mr Wells to sign, surely by now as the leader of the country, as the Prime Minister, he would know what the deal is and we demand that the people know what the deal is.”
The Prime Minister has been silent on the matter since news broke last month that Mr Wells signed a letter of intent with Stellar Waste Management for the waste-to-energy project.
When questioned by reporters two weeks ago, Mr Christie said that his government would provide answers on the controversy when it is ready.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works Philip “Brave” Davis admitted Mr Wells had no authority to sign the letter, but also said he was unsure if Mr Wells had done anything wrong and he would “look into it.”
Comments
sheeprunner12 9 years, 9 months ago
Who is the mole in the PLP????????
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
Leslie? I understand that he said on national TV, ~"the same people who ask Renward to sign the letter, ask me to sign the letter". Wow,
Or maybe Brave or Obie or Fred or BJN or Renward himself. The party is so disjointed, it's a family of moles.
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
Leslie? I understand that he said on national TV, ~"the same people who ask Renward to sign the letter, might have asked me to sign the letter". Still Wow,
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
If there were allegations that President Obama's had sought "to cause to happen" (as PGC likes to say) someone signing off on a deal, at his insistence, because he wanted a particular firm to be given a contract, possibly because there was some financial gain for himself or his friends AND he sought to cause to have that 650 million dollar deal quiet, there would be HELL to pay. The Congress would launch an immediate investigation, would this rise to the level of High Crime and Misdemeanor? Would Impeachment follow? Would we have Obama on TV saying those famous words "I am not a crook"! A friend reminded me of the interesting detail from Nixon's watergate scandal highlighted again on MSNBC yesterday, it wasn't the break in at the Watergate that Nixon wanted to cover up, the real fear was that all of his OTHER dirty deeds would be uncovered.
What is our equivalent to the United States Congress? Who calls the PM and the DPM to answer?
I firmly believe that we are at a point in our country where our politicians are SOOOO corrupt that we need to scrap the entire system. Fire everybody and start over. Get an independent external body to form a temporary government and place job postings for every ministerial position. Hire ethical honest people who are actually qualified to run the portfolio, the Minister of Finance would not be a doctor, Environment would not be a teacher, National Security would not be a priest and all persons previously convicted or with serious allegations or linkages to drug trade, embezzlement, sexual abuse, extortion, bribery, rape, illegal gambling would be FOREVERDISQUALIFIED from holding any ministerial post.
Cobalt 9 years, 9 months ago
Good insight. Good assessment. True observations. Great suggestions. But we have to look even deeper to get to the sub-dermal layer of the existing problem. The Bahamas Government... with all their faults, ineptitudes, failures, unaccountability, incompetence, disgraceful and dishonest track-record... are nothing more than an extension; a mirror image; an inverted reflexion of the hapless, lazy, dishonest practices of the Bahamian people!! The very same practices that defines the Bahamians people are the very same practices that have been incorporated into the operating procedures of the government. Every single Bahamian living in this country for the past 40 plus years, knows about the scandal-ridden, excuse- spouting, corrupt practices of successive governments!! Especially the PLP government!! Yet every five years we sell our votes for political favors, and other acts of selfishness and badmindedness! Long story short...... the Bahamian people are reaping exactly what we've sown. When we the Bahamian people have changed, then our government and their standards will change!!! Until then.... much wailing and gnashing of teeth!
jlcandu 9 years, 9 months ago
Amen!!! You are so right!!!
John 9 years, 9 months ago
Why only 40 years? Didnt the same thing happen under the UBP government when our parents and grandparents sold their votes for a bsg of rice and a sack of flour. The kettle was not always black you know, and neither was the pot.
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
I see, the general is a Fox man then? I can pretty much tell when they go off the wagon, but facts are facts you can't change them, they're just subject to interpretation
jboi242 9 years, 9 months ago
everyone start buying illegal guns we bahamians have to take our country back!
birdiestrachan 9 years, 9 months ago
The same well placed source who told the Tribune Mr. wells was going to resign last Wednesday . is the same well placed source that is reliably informing Mr, Bran MCcartney.. So much for well placed sources.
It is much to do about nothing. But it did get Bran a photo opportunity and a press conference, so I suppose it is all worth it to him. The big concern for the Bahamian people right now is "dear God please spare us from hurricanes." At least for the poor ones this is so
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
And that's exactly what they're hoping for birdie, what an excellent team player you are. Thank you for the suggestion. While the people's land is being removed from under their beds, BOB coffers are being robbed, x-thousand dollar contracts handed out to clean roundabouts and verges that aren't bring cleaned, the country is being raped, no need to pay attention to that disharmony, let's just all hold hands and pray. Mother Pratt? Hope Strachan? lead us in prayer
realfreethinker 9 years, 9 months ago
They love to turn a blind eye to the utter disgrace we have for a government . Absolute corrupt to the core. birdie them cant see wrong if it is sitting on the lens of his glasses.
thomas 9 years, 9 months ago
This government is doing far more damage than any hurricane could ever do.
jackbnimble 9 years, 9 months ago
Actually the full story is now circulating on social media with names, places, dates, etc.
No shock. These people are all in it for the money and kickbacks hence the race to give up their day jobs for Parliament. God, it must be sweet to serve!
thomas 9 years, 9 months ago
Where?
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
Is it sub headlined "40 Years of Independence"?
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
Looks like there's some story on FB, Bahamas News Ma Bey. Don't know if these are easily verifiable facts but it's extremely weird that two companies could be given the go ahead for multi million dollar contracts covering the same work....
sheeprunner12 9 years, 9 months ago
Are we USA, Cuba, Haiti ???????????? Are we prepared to fight a civil war for our real independence?????? PS......... Britain gave us a token release in 1973. But we are still not independent as a people.
TalRussell 9 years, 9 months ago
I must climb out on a risky 'tall' political limb, by encouraging Comrade Leader Bran to hitch onto this 'peoples mandate destroyer' PLP gift-horse and a much weakened red shirts party lack of leadership to begin acting like a formidable opposition party leader, determined to win come 2017. Bran tis time to leave the comfort of your Montagu law offices to head down to Rawson Square to camp out - until the PM comes clean over exactly, what in the hell is going on between his DPM, Parliamentary Secretary and himself? Leader Bran, tell the PM, his DPM and Parliamentary Secretary, you are prepared to sleep out under the stars for as long as it takes, if that's what it will take for the PM to come clean with the peoples.
BEC may be short of power for your homes or businesses but still had enough power to light-up what looks be the dark secrets of this '$600 million Letter of Intent.' And, Tribune reporters didn't even have to meet a PLP 'Deep Throat' in some parking garage. Comrades you and I and everyone else know, the self-proclaimed "Pot cake" Leslie, has now come right out by his going public and said; he thinks he knows more than most people who/whom asked Comrade Parliamentary Secretary Renard to affix his signature to the "Letter of Intent" cause he too was asked to affix his signature to it, via his position as BEC's Chairman?
Is the attorney-general's office too politically cowardly to at least not be wondering, just if, how and why one (or more) people ''got's together'' to commit $600 million in taxpayers money to some foreign corporation? Wouldn't they want to interview the 'Pot cake?' to find out, if the "Pot cake is just talking out he head for publicity or not?
Comrades former President Nixon never ordered the Watergate break-in but his attempts at covering it up - eventually forced him to resign in disgrace from the US presidency. Comrades I have not heard one member of the government, including the PM and DPM, calling this "Letter of Intent committing $600 million of taxpayers hard-earned monies a fake - so we have every right to believe it is a genuine letter, signed by Comrade Renard. The only unanswered question is; why an extremely intelligent man affix his signature to it? Not lasting in office 'all the way' to 2017, may not be as far-fetched a prediction as once thought?
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
Reliable source may have first initial "R" and last initial "W"
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
What was RW doing down there?
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 9 months ago
To Branville and Mortimer: Either produce good evidential proof to support your assertion or shut up!
TalRussell 9 years, 9 months ago
Those loyal PLP Comrades who don't believe your PM, DPM or Parliamentary Secretary have something to hide ought not be treated to some kind of ministerial code of "transparency as an optional extra?" This PM cannot run the risks of ignoring a host of unanswered questions when a growing number of the very people who voted for his government believe persons within the government are intentionally hiding things from the people, or outright lying to them?
GQ 9 years, 9 months ago
I am sick of writers in this forum referring to President Obama of the USA whenever something controversial comes up in The Bahamian Government whether it be PLP or FNM. The US President along with his group "Sherwood Forest Robbers" are doing their share of destroying their country and we do not need any comparisons to them.
From here on out lets deal with our crooks and let the American people deal with theirs.
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
Get used to it and stock up on midol.
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
Well, get some teeth pulled with a wrench then, something to take the kind off being sick
asiseeit 9 years, 9 months ago
I agree with Tal, if these set are serious why are they not camped down on Rawson Square with their supporters? They did that one day thing for Freedom of information which in my view should be every time the house is in session. It is time to stop playing and get up in it if they are the real deal!
TalRussell 9 years, 9 months ago
Get On Up Comrade Green Leader Bran prove you're worthy be respected? Don't worry about taking over red shirts, just yet, first allow Loretta and Daron to finish off the sweeping of Minnis out he leadership position, then move in but in the political meantime....you must prove you are not just sitting on your lazy ass up in Montagu, writing press releases. Hey Comrade bran I won't bill you, just yet...OK?
.....................//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RorG...">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RorG...
Emac 9 years, 9 months ago
Ahh... I don't believe that Branville is passionate or sincere enough about the position that he appears to be so fervently seeking as prime minister of the Bahamas. He certainly does not have the charisma or the tenacity of certain past leaders who connected with the people to agitate for change. He shows himself to be too cool and knowing-Almost as if he is the savior of the future for the Bahamas. NOW with that said, I believe that if he pulls his party together and present viable candidates to lead this wonderful country he would certainly stand a good chance of winning. I am basing this on many the people(both PLPs and FNMs) who firmly state how they are totally turned off from the ups and downs of the PLP and FNM parties and are ready to give the DNA a chance. I myself, a strong ex supporter of the FNM would also consider joining the green team once they get their act together. The FNM was good for the Bahamas mainly because there needed to be some change, any change from the wicked PLP regime that ruled for 25 years? The Bahamas' name was tarnished and needed to be reinstated, law and order needed to be enforced and fresh ideas needed to be brought to the forefront. But as I see it, the FNM got caught up in the same trap as that of the other party, trying to be loyal to their contributors and forgetting the small man who put them in power.
John 9 years, 9 months ago
Then there is another scandal at BTC that may involve several millions in phone cards going missing and senior persons being fired and others forced to resign. Why is the press so late on this one? The PLP sold its soul to win the election (to the numbers boys and to foreigners) and now is payback time.
John 9 years, 9 months ago
Notice even with the matter involving the DPM acting as executor of a $10 million dollar estate. While the DPM and those who attempt to defend him says the widow of the deceased millionaire was happy with the less than $1 million she recieved from estate, No One is saying what happen to the other NINE MILLION from the estate. Are even the dead being robbed in this country? Does an executor have the legal power to settle an estate in a manner other than what was specified in the will?
sheeprunner12 9 years, 9 months ago
Bran should lead a campaign of suing the government on these issues............... put his deep pockets where his mouth is.................. if he cannot win in Parliament, win in court ........ he has a lot of court issues ......... VAT, webshops, BTC, and Freeport to name a few
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 9 months ago
"Freeport", what ever happened to that proposal from Ken Russell? The one he stated he would have no problems being approved
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