The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

I take exception to opinions proffered in the editorial appearing in the May 21, 2019 edition of The Tribune under the heading “Nothing lessens the purse strings like an election”.

The editorial writer sought to connect the New Providence Infrastructure Improvement Project (NPIIP) undertaken by my Government to a “classic moment of loosening the purse strings before an election”.

I attach for your information my Communication in the House of Assembly on 5 March, 2012 in which I addressed the 19-year history of the Project envisioned since 1994 when we engaged a Canadian firm, MM Dillon to prepare a transportation development plan for New Providence. This plan formed the basis of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded NPIIP (“the Project”).

The elaboration of the Project, which included the selection of a consulting firm, Mott MacDonald Consultants, a UK firm, for the development of the project and the sourcing of its funding from the IDB was a well thought out and planned programme of infrastructural improvements for our Capital Island.

The Project was conceived in response to an imperative to transform our aged and outdated public infrastructure, i.e. water mains and laterals, electric and communication conduits, poor drainage and congested road network in New Providence, an island whose population had more than doubled in the previous four decades. The Project broke ground in April, 2001.

The Charles Saunders Highway, Milo Butler Highway to Fire Trail Road and the realignment of Gladstone Road had been substantially completed and opened before the 2002 General Elections.

Subsequent to the 2002 General Election the company contracted to carry out the project, Associated Asphalt of the United Kingdom, went bankrupt due to circumstances unrelated to The Bahamas Project.

The Project was underpinned by Performance and Advance Payments Bonds. At that time, the Government chose not to enforce the Performance and Advance Payment Bonds which could have resulted in the project being completed by Interbetton, a Dutch company. Interbetton had been an acceptable bidder in the original bid process and was the contractor of the second Paradise Island Bridge. Had the Government enforced the Bonds the Project could have been completed in 2005.

Instead the first Christie Administration chose to continue only some aspects of the Project, including widening a section of Harrold Road and Blue Hill Road south between Harrold Road and Robinson Road and extending the Milo Butler Highway to Carmichael Road.

When the FNM was returned to office in 2007 my government immediately resumed our programme of infrastructure upgrades, including harbour deepening, water works, telecommunications and, of course, the completion of the Project.

Markedly roads in the city and other heavily populated areas were to be ungraded along with the underlying water and electrical and telecommunications infrastructure. That these works created nuisances and temporary inconveniences to businesses and the motoring public are acknowledged. I note the obvious, without the inner city infrastructural upgrades planned in the Project to include upgrade to distribution water mains and road drainage, improved road intersections, the installation of sidewalks and landscape, the long sought after renewal of the Over-the-Hill areas cannot happen.

It never occurred to me that any of these projects were meant to influence an election. Our initiatives were fulfillment of pledges and commitments dating from our first coming to office in August 1992; hence, my rejection of the editor’s conclusion that the work was undertaken for re-election purposes. Clearly your editorial writer did not let the facts get in the way of his uninformed opinion.

HUBERT INGRAHAM

Nassau

May 29, 2019