The Tribune

A former Bahamas Bar Association president has hailed the proposed Construction Adjudication Bill (CAB) as a “transformative” piece of legislation for this nation.

Dr Peter Maynard, Peter Maynard & Company’s managing partner, championed the Bill that is being drafted by the Ministry of Financial Services, Trade and Immigration as an alternative mechanism for resolving construction-related disputes.

“This will impact the construction industry in an extremely positive way, in that construction disputes are presently very poorly dealt with in The Bahamas,” he said. “I think very few people are having difficulty with that statement.”

Citing China Construction America’s (CCA) dispute with Baha Mar’s original developer, Sarkis Izmirilian, as one such example, Dr Maynard added: “For example, the contractors and the Bahamian Contractors Association, they want to deal more effectively with construction adjudication to avoid some of the disputes we’ve seen over the years - everything varying from Baha Mar to the construction of the dual carriageway to the airport.

“The Bill applies to any construction dispute; from a contractor having a sub-contractor come in to do some work and they’re not satisfied with it..... Depending on those disputes arising from numerous situations, they can be dealt with in the context of IWHAAM.”

IWHAAM is the International and Western Hemisphere Arbitration Adjudication and Mediation Centre, a project that has been pushed by Dr Maynard for several years.

He said there are many non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations interested in moving the “transformative” International and Western Hemisphere Arbitration Adjudication and Mediation Centre forward, with its public launch set for 6pm this Friday with the election of Board members who will set its agenda moving forward.

Dr Peter Maynard said IWHAAM has been developed over the past two decades in a bid to reduce the backlog of commercial disputes that have to be resolved by the Bahamian judicial system.