Nassau, Bahamas - The following is a statement by Bradley B. Roberts,
National Chairman
Progressive Liberal
Party:
Loretta Butler-Turner is
possessed with and enslaved by an unclean spirit of untruth, but the truth
shall set her free.
It is not enough that
Butler-Turner and the FNM cabinet that served in sold BTC at a fire sale price;
it is not enough that the government received significantly less than the
reported price, but Loretta Butler-Turner had the unmitigated gall to go
running to the media, crocodile tears and all, complaining and lying about an
agreement that she and the FNM agreed to as early as February 2011.
For the benefit of both
Loretta Butler-Turner and Dr. Hubert Minnis who apparently suffer from short
memory, in a presentation before the FNM cabinet of the first business plan for
a privatized BTC, (the 95 page PowerPoint presentation presented to Cabinet at
or around the 1st February 2011), former Prime Minister and the entire FNM crew
agreed that Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) could decimate BTC after
the first year of privatization AND outsource all its main functions to CWC
operations abroad. This is what Butler-Turner agreed to so I found it very
strange that she would show up on the front page of one of the dailies
complaining about a deal that received the full sanction and blessing of the
entire FNM Cabinet prior to the sale of BTC. The record so reflects.
The record clearly shows
that over 500 high paying BTC jobs were lost following the sale of the majority
of shares to Cable and Wireless. The exclusive right by CWC to appoint the CEO
of BTC was enshrined in the FNM sales agreement so only a devious mind
could suggest that a deal was done by the PLP government to outsource jobs – a
deal to which the FNM Government had agreed in writing.
For the record, there is
no proposal before BTC board to appoint Leon Williams to the post of CEO BTC.
Further, there is no proposal before the board to outsource Bahamian jobs and I
am advised that the BTC Board Chairman communicated that to BCPOU President
Evans.
Bold and shameless lies
of this nature from those who know better only underscore the need for the
appointment of a select committee to investigate the circumstances and the
terms and conditions of the majority share sale of BTC under the FNM and I call
on the government to cause such a committee to be appointed.
