The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR and National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson called yesterday for FNM Deputy Chairman Dr Duane Sands to publicly apologise for the “basic, factually incorrect statements” he made about him in a Tribune article last week.

Dr Sands responded saying the Minister “shouldn’t hold his breath waiting” for an apology.

On Friday, The Tribune published Dr Sands’ claim that in March 2007 “Shane Gibson, as Minister of Housing responsible for (National Insurance Board) NIB and (the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation) BMC, without Cabinet or Ministry of Finance approval, instructed the NIB board to make a loan of $7m to the BMC to cover additional construction costs for the new BMC office building”.

Speaking to The Tribune yesterday, Mr Gibson responded saying that not only was he the Minister of Labour, Immigration and Training between 2005 and 2007 as opposed to being the Minister of Housing responsible for NIB and BMC, but he also resigned from Cabinet in February 2007, making it “impossible” for him to have done what Dr Sands claims he did.

He also criticised The Tribune for publishing Dr Sands’ “obviously incorrect” statement. “I want to ask that twice rejected, wannabe politician to apologise. I hope he don’t go into surgery and make the same type mistakes he made as he falsely accused me of doing something in office that I couldn’t have done because I was not in office. He never has his facts right.”

Mr Gibson said Dr Sands’ statements are made worse because he had discussed and clarified the matter with him before.

His comment comes amid a row over the appropriateness of awarding a $20m contract to Lloyd Smith of Holiday Industrial Builders International (HIBI) to construct a government complex on John F Kennedy drive to house the Ministry of National Security.

HIBI was contracted in 2004 to construct a complex that was initially slated to house the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC) but that now houses the office of the Attorney General.

Although the company was terminated by the FNM after the cost of the project expanded and the work done was believed to be poor, an arbitration determined the termination was wrongful and that HIBI was to be paid “just shy of $700,000”.

Mr Gibson contends that the cost of the project rocketed from $5.8m in 2004 to more than $32m under the Ingraham administration due to the party’s “wastage”.

Dr Sands, however, says that the money spent on the project under the FNM was the consequence of actions by Mr Gibson when he was in office.

Responding to Mr Gibson’s call for a public apology yesterday, Dr Sands said: “If he wants to stand on a technicality, bearing in mind that it’s not when something comes into action but when a decision is made, then he can go ahead. Governmental records would demonstrate who would’ve authorised the loan. I have no need or desire to apologise to Minister Gibson as I describe him as not only inefficient but incompetent. If he wishes to demand a public apology, let him go and demand it. But he shouldn’t hold his breath.”

He continued: “Why would I apologise to somebody who has consistently shown himself to be incompetent? Somebody who, as the person responsible for National Insurance, loaded the deck with unnecessary employees and also did the same thing at the Mortgage Corporation? Someone who, as Minister responsible for the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation, had the books loaded with more mortgages that ultimately went into default than at any other time? A man who was forced to resign in disgrace for his behaviour as Minister? People have not forgotten Anna Nicole Smith, you know? Independent auditors would confirm that his behaviour as minister showed the most egregious examples of inefficiency.”

Responding to Dr Sands’ criticism that costs associated with the project grew partly because of his decision to add another floor to the building, Mr Gibson said the money spent on transforming the two-storey building into a three-storey building was justified as the extra floor was built to house the offices of ministry personnel.

On May 10, 2002, Mr Gibson was appointed Minister of Housing and National Insurance. Following a Cabinet reshuffle on February 22, 2005, Prime Minister Perry Christie made him the Minister of Immigration, Labour and Training.

He resigned from office on February 18, 2007.