The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Government was yesterday urged not to finalise the report and recommendations on Freeport’s future, a well-known QC warning this would spark a further Judicial Review challenge.

The Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed the appeal by Callenders & Co partners, Fred Smith QC and Carey Leonard, for permission to bring Judicial Review proceedings challenging the Freeport consultation process.

The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction to hear the application. As a result, Mr Smith said he was heading back to the Supreme Court to renew his application for Judicial Review permission.

“I’m not challenging the committee’s after-the-fact decision,” he told Tribune Business. “We are challenging the process. We say that the process is fundamentally flawed; that you can’t conduct a process without having all of your cards out on the table.

“We’re going to go back to a Supreme Court judge in open court and will argue for leave to be granted. Obviously it is a matter of urgency. The Prime Minister recently said they are going to issue a report within two weeks.”

Mr Smith then warned: “I urge the Prime Minister, Dr Darville, the minister for Grand Bahama and Dr  Bethel, the chairman of the committee, not to finalise the report because if they do I will simply have to bring a whole new Judicial Review application which seeks to set aside all the findings of the committee and quash the decisions. That is just going to roll every thing  back.”

Prime Minister Perry Christie, in his 2015-2016 Budget communication last week, said the committee appointed to review and make recommendations on how to address the expiring tax incentives in Freeport, is expected to submit its report to Government “within the next two weeks”. 

   But Mr Smith said yesterday:  “I urge the Government to stop this fortress mentality. Believe it or not, everyone is not opposed to what the Government may or may not wish to do if they, in fact, participate in a sensible participation process. They may be shocked at what some of the licensees may propose.

“I say no more secrets. Stop this psychotic behaviour that assumes everyone is against you. I urge the Prime Minister to be forthright and to publish in full the report of  the McKinsey report consultants. It is obviously fundamental and pivotal to the deliberations of the committee. It is what they themselves have said is informing the committee and the Government, and advising them on what matters they should consider.

“I beg the Prime Minster, and Dr Bethel and Dr Darville, to come clean with the public. There is nothing to hide. They used my taxpayer dollars to do the report.”

Mr Smith had brought the appeal after Justice Petra Hanna-Weekes, at a May 22 hearing, dismissed their original application, as she was “not satisfied” that the Government was obligated by law to publish a report on Freepport’s future by its consultants, McKinsey.

Justice Hanna-Weekes also accepted the need for a short consultation period with Freeport stakeholders, given that the city’s Business Licence and real property tax exemptions are due to expire in just over two months on August 4.

And, in denying the attorneys’ application for permission to bring Judicial Review proceedings, she found their action was “premature” because neither the Government, nor its consultative committee, had released their decisions/recommendations over both the expiring tax breaks and Freeport’s longer-term future.