The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE public-private partnership (PPP) project subject to a $25 million capital raising has received "Cabinet approval", the Attorney General has confirmed.

Carl Bethel QC told Tribune Business that the new Eight Mile Rock administrative complex had been cleared to proceed, following the Minnis administration's review of the PPP terms with developer, PPP Investments & Construction. His confirmation supports the company's assertion to investors in the offering document for its $25 million bond offering, and indicates to the capital markets that the project is 'for real' with no obstacles to its progress.

PPP Investments & Construction had told potential investors: "The contract was reviewed by the current government and approved for completion given the professionals involved, the legal soundness of the contract protecting all entities, and the value the compound will bring to servicing the citizens of Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama."

Both Mr Bethel and his Cabinet colleague, Desmond Bannister, the minister of works, had been critical of the PPPs inherited from the former Christie administration - including the Eight Mile Rock complex, the contract for which was signed on May 9, 2017, just 24 hours before the general election.

The signing also resulted in the Government releasing a $4.4 million 'advance interest payment' to PPP Investments & Construction as 'initial funding construction', a transaction that Mr Bannister criticised as "inconceivable".

And Mr Bethel, referring to the Eight Mile Rick project and Nassau's General Post Office, told the Senate last year: "Officials of my Ministry, although they were briefed and working on the proposed contracts, had not 'signed off', or given the OK, to the signing of these two contracts, and were never informed that officials in another Ministry had gone ahead and signed them, one on May 9, 2017, a day before the general elections."

The Attorney General's comments to Tribune Business, though, remove any lingering doubts over whether the Eight Mile Rock project has been given the go-ahead.

Alecia Bowe, an attorney and director of PPP Investments & Construction, last week told Tribune Business that the political controversy surrounding the project had been "unfortunate", given that the contract signing's timing was out of the company's hands.

She said "there was no reason not to sign" the agreement, and suggested the furore could have been avoided if the Christie government had moved quicker to approve the venture, explaining that she and PPP Investments & Construction had been negotiating and finalising the documents from November 2016.

Mrs Bowe, an attorney with Karam & Missick & Company, said she was able to prove the Minnis administration that the project was not a 'back of the envelope', last-minute deal by providing them with "all the correspondence" exchanged between herself and the Attorney General's Office over a six-and-a-half month period.

She suggested that the Eight Mile Rock complex was the only PPP, among six to seven such arrangements inherited from its predecessor, which the Government has allowed to proceed after recognising that the contracts built in "protections for all parties involved".

PPP Investments & Construction Company, which was formed in late November 2016, is a vehicle specifically designed to construct and manage the Eight Mile Rock administrative complex. It is 100 per cent-owned by New Providence-based Top Notch Builders, which is located on Adelaide Road.

Its principals include Samson Heild as lead contractor; financial consultant Marc Robinson; and building/consulting engineer, Randolph John. Winston Rolle, the former Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president, is listed as a director in the offering documents.

Among the prospective tenants at Eight Mile Rock are the Ministry of Finance, Passport Office, Department of Environmental Health, Urban Renewal, the Registrar General's Office and the Grand Bahama island administrator.

The $25 million bond issue, which carries an 8 per cent interest coupon and 10-year maturity, launches today. It is being arranged by Leno Corporate Services and scheduled to close on March 2 but, as a private offering, members of the Bahamian public should not seek to become involved. The bonds issued will not be listed for trading on the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX).