The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

AGRICULTURE and Marine Resources Minister V Alfred Gray has defended the Christie administration’s decision to award a former PLP Cabinet minister a construction contract at BAMSI, saying the government will do as much as it can for the people who supported them.

Mr Gray insisted yesterday that it was hypocritical for the Free National Movement to raise questions over this issue.

He went on to warn that the FNM should not push him, suggesting that he would reveal similar actions on the part of the opposition when the party was in office.

The minister was responding to concerns the FNM has raised over the last few weeks as to why former Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister Darrell Rolle was awarded a contract to build the female dormitory at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute.

FNM Chairman Michael Pintard has also questioned why Mr Rolle was reportedly allowed to borrow approximately $200,000 from the Bahamas Development Bank (BDB) when he, along with a business partner, should have been directed to a commercial bank.

“When the FNM gave contracts to their supporters, (Dr Andre) Rollins who just joined them and the FNM establishment, you don’t hear a word about it,” Mr Gray told ZNS yesterday. “The press don’t seem to care.”

“But as soon as some supporter of the government or some perceived supporter of the government, whether they be Darrell Rolle or any other person there is a big to do.”

“It is nothing to do with money well spent or otherwise. What they do not want us to do is help people who support us. But that’s going to be a lie. We are going to do as much as we can for the people who support us because if it hadn’t it been for them we wouldn’t be in power today.”

Mr Gray added: “Both Darrell Rolle and Reverend Sam Greene are from Andros and so when we ran out of contractors in Andros at the time there were some people who lived here (who) needed to work and we gave them the opportunity to participate.

“If that’s wrong, then the whole Bahamas is wrong . . .”

Dr Rollins, the MP for Ft Charlotte, raised the issue of the BAMSI contract in the House of Assembly on February 3, calling for disclosure on the matter.

Mr Rolle has admitted to reporters that a company that he has interests in along with associate Samuel Greene and others, Andarco Construction Ltd, received the BAMSI contract.

Earlier this week, it was reported by The Nassau Guardian that Andarco was incorporated just in time to be awarded the contract – on April 30, 2013. However Mr Gray said he did not see an issue with this.

“As long as it was a duly registered company or if they had to form it, what’s the issue? If they say it was a shell and it wasn’t properly formed that is another matter. But if it is a properly formed company if the company was able to take advantage of an opportunity, which presented itself, what’s the big deal?

“If they say that the work that these people do are not up to standard that is something that we need to look at, but they can’t say that. So now they are saying we gave it to people who are your supporters and what’s wrong with that?

“Ask the former government who is (name withheld) in Freeport who does everything in Nassau for the government? I am not going to call any names but if they push me I will. These are the hypocrisies that bother me.”

Last week Mr Pintard questioned if the BDB loan helped finance the building of the female dormitory at BAMSI.

Mr Pintard said: “We would like to know, what was the process by which they obtained the loan? Did they fill out an application and follow all of the regular protocols that ordinary businesses would have had to go through? We also want to know what was the purpose of the loan? Was it to mobilise them for the contract which they eventually received from the government to construct the female dormitory in Andros?”

He added: “Having obtained the contract in Andros and having been paid in full by the government, is it accurate that they were paid somewhere between $2.5m to $5m? Could the government clarify that figure?”

Mr Rolle, who once served as an MP for Andros, has denied that cronyism was involved in the contract awarding process.