The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Prime Minister is undermining investor confidence in the Bahamas by repeatedly promising that a Baha Mar resolution, and completion, is imminent, an Opposition politician has charged.

Branville McCartney, the Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader, told Tribune Business that Perry Christie’s repeated “pie in the sky” assurances on Baha Mar had undermined his government’s credibility, especially since he was also Minister of Finance.

Describing the Prime Minister’s previously stated optimism as “delusional”, Mr McCartney said this had been shredded by the prediction from Sir Sol Kerzner’s joint venture partner, Andrew Farkas, that the earliest Baha Mar can fully open is winter 2017.

Pointing out that this date will likely be months after the next general election, the DNA leader predicted that the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) will “pay at the polls” for the Baha Mar impasse, and the unemployment and social dislocation it has caused.

Mr McCartney also questioned whether it was the Government or Baha Mar’s main contractor, China Construction (America), who had “put the Bahamian people in the dark” over the likelihood that the $3.5 billion development would miss its planned March 27, 2015, opening.

Referring to the confidential internal CCA memo, which suggests the contractor knew at least two months in advance that Baha Mar would miss its target opening, Mr McCartney questioned how much the Prime Minister and his Government knew about the project’s construction status at that time.

Calling for Mr Christie to level with the Bahamian people on Baha Mar, the DNA leader told Tribune Business: “To have a Prime Minister saying Baha Mar’s going to open soon, he’s got to be delusional.

“He’s the Minister of Finance, responsible for the nation’s finances. How much confidence does that engender in businesspeople? It makes you as a Bahamian reluctant to invest in your country.

“As a business person, you work and invest in your country. You put everything you’ve got into your country, but your country can fall apart before your eyes because here we are today, and the Government is making bad financial decisions.”

Mr Farkas told Tribune Business that if a purchaser/investor could strike a deal immediately with Baha Mar’s financier, the China Export-Import Bank, it would take until June to re-start construction on the development.

Construction and pre-opening activities would take 12 months, he estimated, pushing Baha Mar’s completion out to June 2017. To avoid the likely greater losses associated with opening during the ‘slower’ summer months, Mr Farkas said any new owner would likely wait until winter 2017.

Mr McCartney told Tribune Business that Mr Farkas’s predictions tallied with his own, adding: “I’ve said from the earliest of days that the place will not be open until after the next election.

“There will be a new Government that opens that resort. It’s going to take time. The Prime Minister is saying otherwise, but it’s just pie in the sky.”

Tribune Business understands that several of his own Cabinet ministers have advised the Prime Minister to stop suggesting publicly that a Baha Mar resolution is at hand, given that all this does is draw public attention to the $3.5 billion development’s standstill.

Meanwhile, describing the projected earliest opening date as “concerning but realistic”, Mr McCartney added: “I think the Government and the Prime Minister, in particular, need to be open and honest with the Bahamian people with regard to the opening of this resort.

“This is going to affect them at the polls, there’s no doubt it will. People are out of jobs, and this is something the PLP banked on. It was their trump card, but no significant thing has worked out for the Government over the last four years, apart from imposing taxes on the backs of hard-working Bahamians.”

The DNA leader added that little had been said recently about the collective $74 million owed to Bahamian contractors, plus the debts to other local vendors and the investments by retail/restaurant owners, and how their situations would be resolved.

Mr McCartney predicted it was “unlikely” that Bahamian contractors would recover all the monies owed to them for work on the Baha Mar project.

As for the memo that strongly suggests CCA knew it would not meet Baha Mar’s opening deadline, the DNA leader questioned how much the Government knew, and whether it had been informed of the construction problems and delays by the Chinese.

“It tells me that the Bahamian people have been put in the dark,” Mr McCartney told Tribune Business. “I would assume that either the Prime Minister did not know, or he knew and gave the Bahamian people a completely different impression.

“Was the Prime Minister asleep at the wheel again, or were the Chinese being disingenuous with our government? It’s one or the other. Was the Prime Minister being disingenuous with the Bahamian people, which is not uncommon for this government, or were the Chinese at that time not being open with our government?

“It leaves a bad taste in the mouth,” he added. “If it’s the Government being disingenuous, I trust the Bahamian people know what to do in the coming months, and if the Chinese were being disingenuous, we have to watch them closely.”

Mr McCartney reiterated that the Government should not have held itself out as an ‘independent mediator’ in the Baha Mar dispute, given that it was simultaneously negotiating with CCA over The Pointe development at the British Colonial Hilton.

“That didn’t make sense,” he told Tribune Business. “It was a conflict of interest. It was ‘three versus one’. Poor Sarkis. All this is coming to light now.

“Like all the decisions the Government has made over the last four years, it doesn’t seem to be in the best interests of the country, and shows they don’t truly believe in Bahamians.”