By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Deputy Chief Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
DEMOCRATIC National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney has accused Prime Minister Perry Christie and his administration of engaging in a “conflict of interest” with Sandals Royal Bahamian executives, resulting in his silence over the firing of 600 resort employees and the attorney general’s directive to issue a nolle prosequi for criminal action against the resort and two of its officials.
Mr McCartney said he strongly doubted the government had been blindsided by the mass termination of the employees or that senior government ministers, who sit around the Cabinet table, had no knowledge of the directive of no prosecution. Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson gave this order on August 15 to the Magistrate’s Court on the same day the employees were made redundant.
The leader of the country’s third party questioned whether Mrs Maynard-Gibson would come to the aid of the Bahamians who face prosecution in the courts after demonstrating and ultimately tearing down a fence at Paradise Island in protest of the removal of their rights to access Cabbage Beach. This incident happened in March.
“(There is) very much so a conflict of interest in two ways,” Mr McCartney said on Friday during a press conference at his law office on Village Road.
“(The prime minister appears to be) very friendly with the owners and secondly with the possibility of there being contracts given by the owners of Sandals to family or friends of Cabinet ministers. I am very curious to find out the answer to that by the prime minister.”
Asked his thoughts on recent developments that senior Cabinet ministers were left in the dark regarding the attorney general’s plans to issue a nolle prosequi to the resort and two of its executives, Mr McCartney said he thought this was an “untruth”.
“I don’t believe it. They sit around that Cabinet table at least once a week. This is a very serious issue in the Bahamas with the 600 plus people being terminated and you mean to tell me that the attorney general who probably sits very close to the prime minister around the Cabinet table didn’t say a word and the prime minister didn’t know?
“Are we fools? Are we that stupid as a people to believe that? You know the PLP take us for fools. That’s all I could say. And the international community is looking at us and laughing and saying ‘Look at those people, look at that government just dealing with them, they (are) stupid, man’.”
A day after Labour Minister Shane Gibson crticised Mrs Maynard-Gibson for not informing him of her decision to stop the private prosecution against Sandals and two senior officials, two more Cabinet ministers spoke out against the handling of the matter.
Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis and Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe said they were both unaware that a nolle prosequi had been issued.
Echoing Mr Gibson’s concerns on Thursday, both ministers acknowledged that the matter could injure the governing party’s public image, specifically its deeply rooted ties to the labour movement.
However the attorney general on Thursday night swiped back at criticisms.
“The attorney general in the execution of her constitutional duty is never swayed by the political objectives of her colleagues or anyone else,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson said in a statement.
For his part Mr Wilchcombe said: “We’re dealing with a situation in our country right now we have to be sure of the messages we’re sending. At all times the Bahamian people must know as Sir Lynden said before, that there is justice as opposed to ‘just us’ and I think it’s imperative that we understand that there’s a process.
“And the reality is that the minister responsible for labour is at the table negotiating, and I understand his argument that if I’m at the table negotiating, I should not be caught by surprise because it sends the wrong message.”
The attorney general’s order halts the action launched against the resort, its general manager, Gary Williams, and financial controller, Fitzroy Walker, by five officers of the BHMAWU who had alleged that Sandals Royal Bahamian was in breach of the Industrial Relations Act by failing/refusing to “treat or enter into negotiations” with the union.
The union also claimed that the resort, Mr Williams and Mr Walker, had violated the Industrial Tribunal Relations Act by intimidating and terminating employees. The resort, and its executives, had denied all allegations.
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