The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Abaco Chamber of Commerce’s president yesterday said the newly-appointed Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) board has been given a “big punch list” of issues to take care of.

Mr Hutton told Tribune Business: “The new DRA seems to be off to a good start. The board of the DRA met with the Abaco Chamber last week and asked us to send our priority list to them, which we are doing. So, at least they are listening, which is a good start. We’ll see where it goes from there, there is so much work still left to be done here. It’s a big punch list.”

He said he was “not surprised” that the Davis administration was questioning a number of DRA contracts issued since Hurricane Dorian devastated the island in September 2019 given the amount of reconstruction work that remains to be done.

Describing this as staggering, Mr Hutton said that while the DRA had been somewhat successful in organising small home repairs and creating debris management sites, very little impact had otherwise been seen from its efforts under the former Minnis administration despite thousands of dollars in contracts being issued.

Also speaking to the concerns raised about DRA contracts, Brent Collins, chief executive of Freeport-based Power Equipment, said: “I’m disappointed that more and more stuff keeps coming up. It’s like every other day something is coming up. I’m just tired of it all.”

Mr Collins added: “With the work that needs to be done on Grand Bahama, the East End alone, it’s going to take them years to get back to where they once were. In Freeport where I live, lately I have been seeing a lot of activity with some land clearing and heavy equipment moving back and forth.

“Some businesses have finally opened that were planning to open before the storm hit, but they had to start over. But at least a few of those businesses are opening. I think people are really just tired of laying around and not doing anything, and tired of waiting for hand-outs.”