From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
This Week in The Bahamas Commentary by Elcott Coleby: May 12 - 15
By Elcott Coleby
May 16, 2015 - 1:53:35 AM
PM Christie opens
Island House Boutique Hotel
With
30 luxury rooms, six luxury apartments, two restaurants, gym, spa, squash
courts, yoga studio, meeting room, pool, movie theatre, a coffee bar, and 128
employees to pamper their high end guests, the $40 million luxury boutique
hotel, the Island House Boutique Hotel was officially opened
on Monday of this
week. Delivering the keynote address was Prime Minister Christie who thanked
the Holowesko family for their belief in the Bahamian economy and for taking
the risk to invest in a segment of the economy traditionally dominated by
foreign investors. The Prime Minster touted the economic impact of the
investment including increased public revenue and repeated the call for more Bahamians
to invest in tourism related projects. The Island House is located in the hills
just outside Lyford Cay.
Four Seasons Resort to
boost South Eleuthera economy
After
a quarter of a century of waiting, the residents of South Eleuthera are set to
benefit substantially from a major economic stimulus involving one of the world’s
most respected hotel and hospitality brands, the Four Seasons.
A Heads of Agreement between the government of The
Bahamas, the Cotton Bay Holdings Limited and Mine Holdings Limited for the
construction of a five star, $100 million luxury 115 room boutique hotel, 40
private residences, an 18 hole world class Robert Trent Jones golf course, spa,
restaurants, recreational facilities, a commercial shopping center and employee
housing. This first phase will create 200 direct construction jobs and 300
hotel jobs during operations.
“This day will mark the beginning of the renaissance of
tourism on the beautiful island of Eleuthera” said Prime Minister Christie in
his keynote address. Commenting further on additional jobs to be created in
support services and infrastructural upgrades, the Prime Minister pointed to
the planned upgrade of the Rock Sound International Airport.
“South Eleuthera airport facilities will be upgraded to
international IATA standards and allow for day and night time commercial and
private international flights with refueling and adequate passenger and luggage
facilities as well as improved local emergency services to meet the brand
standards of Four Seasons and other significant touristic developments taking
place in the immediate future” said Prime Minister Christie.
Tourism Minister Hon. Obie Wilchcombe added that the
government has facilitated a successful turnaround in the economies of Grand
Bahama and Exuma and he fully expects the same for Eleuthera. He explained that
The Bahamas was blest and privileged to have so many great hotel brands marketing
its tourism products internationally but The Bahamas remains one of the greatest
brands in the world.
The resort is expected to break ground before the end of
the year under the watchful eye of its principal, Colombian born Dr. Luis Carlos
Sarmiento Angulo, a resident of Eleuthera.
Immigration
amendment bill 2015 comes into force
Having
been signed into law by the Governor General on Friday 8th May, the
Immigration Amendment Act 2015 and attendant regulations came into force on
Monday.In a statement released by the Minister of Immigration, Mitchell
said that “this is a pleasing development and one which will strengthen the
hand of the Department of Immigration as it seeks to stem the tide of unlawful
migration in The Bahamas.”
The
Act will amongst other things provide for stiffer penalties for illegal
landing, for harbouring illegal migrants and for making attempts to leave this
country to be smuggled into another country.The Act will also make it an
offence to enter into a fraudulent marriage and will strengthen the powers of
arrest of Immigration Officers.
It
creates for the first time an Immigration Reserve, patterned after the Police
Reserves. It will be established in the next fiscal year and in the first
instance in islands that have, at present, no immigration presence.The
statement said that an announcement will be made shortly on when recruitment
can be expected for the reserve.
The
Act also creates an immigration status known as a Belonger's Permit to be
issued to those who are born in The Bahamas to non-Bahamian parents and who reside
lawfully in The Bahamas.The fee for this permit is 125 dollars.
This week in Parliament
Bills
for Acts to provide for oil drilling and the establishment of a Sovereign
Wealth Fund together with guidelines on how the financial proceeds from the
sale of mined oil in The Bahamas will be allocated were to be the focus of
Parliamentary debate this past
Wednesday, but a reported hacking of the
Ministry of Tourism’s official website, Bahamas.com, cancelled all of that. Prime
Minister Christie convened an emergency cabinet meeting to address this matter
with potentially serious “national security implications” said the PM.
First
up though was the Speaker’s ruling on the status of the probe of the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) in light of the refusal of Co Chairs Algernon Allen
and Cynthia Pratt to appear before the PAC and a subsequent legal opinion
rendered by the Attorney General that the PAC probe was “illegally improper”
because the report was not tabled in the House of Assembly.
In
the legal opinion, the Attorney General questioned the legality of the PAC
Chair directing the Auditor General and the PAC requesting a document (the
audit of the UR small homes repair program) that was not tabled in the House of
Assembly.
The
Speaker ruled that the PAC could not proceed further with their probe into the
Urban Renewal Small Homes Repair Program until such time as the audit had been
tabled in the House of Assembly. He said that certain “procedural errors”
influenced his decision and had he received a copy of the audit, he would have
tabled it without delay, giving the PAC proper guidelines to proceed with the
probe. This was the law for many years in The Bahamas.
Algernon
Allen called a press conference following the Speaker’s ruling to say that the ruling
was a vindication of the work of Urban Renewal. He characterized the whole PAC
hearing as “improper,” a “Kangaroo Court” that smacked of “political mischief” and
undermined the good work of Urban Renewal. He also said that Urban Renewal “cannot
be used as a political lynch mob and should not be used as such.”
Several
contractors have either filed law suits against the government in the wake of
the Auditor General’s report or are contemplating the same but Mr. Allen told
the media that he is “discouraging“ such actions because in the end, the
government will have to pay and law suits are unhelpful to the objectives of Urban
Renewal.
Saint
Anne’s MP and Chairman of the PAC Hubert Chipman disagreed with the Speaker’s
ruling and opined that the speaker’s ruling rendered the PAC “useless.”
Several
Ministers congratulated the students of the Anatol Rodgers High School for
winning an international hotel challenge in Orlando, Florida and the local
Build a bridge competition.
The
Nurse’s association was congratulated on their 52nd anniversary. They
are affiliated with the International College of Nursing, the Royal College of
Nursing and the Commonwealth Nurse’s Association. The President of the
association is Paulette Cash.
Education
Minister Hon. Jerome Fitzgerald announced that a brand new Freedom of
Information Act 2015 draft was completed and will be released for public
consultation on Friday, 15th May 2015. Interested persons can access
the draft bill on the Ministry of Education’s website and the government’s
official website.
Prime
Minister Christie updated the House on the regional summit on climate change
that he attended as CARICOM Chair on Saturday, 9th May 2015 in
Martinique. In attendance was French President Hollande who will play host to
the COP21 Summit on Climate Change to be held in Paris in December 2015. Prime
Minister Christie again called for access to loans at concessionary rates and
independent of GDP considerations for capital development for energy-related projects.
AG clarifies questions
on extradition files
In response to public commentary and
questions regarding the status of certain court files, the Attorney General
issued a statement basically reiterating a longstanding policy and practice that
the government does not offer public commentary on such matters that are before
the courts. The statement is printed below in its entirety.
“The Office of the Attorney-General
wishes to clarify questions regarding extradition files.
“The
Office of the Attorney General adheres to the long-established legal rule and
principles which prohibit public comment on any legal matter pending before the
Courts, including relations with foreign states.
“With
respect to particular extradition requests made by the United States of
America, the Office of the Attorney General wishes to state for the record, and
for the assurance of the public, that these matters are receiving full
attention and are either in progress before the Court or awaiting a court date
so they may proceed.”
BAMSI announces
internship program
As year one of BAMSI’s
academic portfolio comes to a successful close, The Bahamas Agriculture and
Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) recently announced a public private sector
partnership (PPP) that will facilitate its newly created internship program
designed to strengthen the institute’s curriculum and provide its students with
a more well rounded academic experience.
“More than one dozen Bahamian
companies – private sector agencies, environmental groups and charitable organizations
– have agreed to provide internship opportunities for BAMSI’s students. It is
hoped that the hands-on experience will assist
students in developing a greater appreciation for and understanding of their
chosen field of study while allowing them to see the breadth of career
opportunities available to them upon graduation” said BAMSI Executive Director,
Dr. Raveena Roberts-Hanna.
Some of the New Providence based industry partners in this
internship program are Atlantis, Goodfellow Farms, the Department of Forestry,
Paradise
Fisheries, Heritage Seafood and the Bahamas Agriculture Industrial Corporation
(BAIC – also their sub-offices in Long Island and Exuma). Family Island partners
include Edrin Seymour of Applehole Farms in Eleuthera, Wayne Hall of Halls Organic
Farm and Lucayan Tropical in Grand Bahama, the Bahamas National Trust (in
Andros and Eleuthera), Friends of the Environment in Abaco and the Department
of Forestry in Andros.
Organizations, agencies and environmental
groups interested in participating in the 2015 internship programme can contact the BAMSI office in the
Island Trader’s Building, East Bay Street at (242)397.6580 and by email at
bamsipr.2014@gmail.com orbamsiinternship@gmail.com
for more
information.
Government provides update
on website hacking incident
A
day following the announcement by Bahamas Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry G.
Christie from the floor of the House
on Wednesday that the official website of
the Ministry of Tourism had been hacked, the Ministry of Tourism issued a
statement to update the public on the facts surrounding the incident and the immediate
steps taken by the government to mitigate further national security breaches.
According to the statement,
the Bahamas government confirmed that several government-owned websites
including the Ministry of Tourism websites,
www.bahamas.com
and www.bahamasfilm.com, were hacked
on Wednesday morning apparently by members
of a Tunisian Islamist activist group called the “Fallaga Team.” The steps
taken were as follow:
-
All
defaced sections of the government-owned websites were quickly removed and a
corrected version redeployed and with the restoration of
ALL compromised pages, all affected websites are now back to normal
modes of operation.
-
The
evidence collected has been turned over to the relevant local authorities and
the matter is currently under active investigation.
-
As
a short term strategy and in an abundance of caution, all government websites
have been checked for possible breaches, safeguarded and reinforced against potential
vulnerabilities by the implementation of software patching.
As a long term strategy the government of The Bahamas announced
that it will convene a meeting of industry experts to review the entire
government owned internet related infrastructure with a view to determining
what, if any, additional measures can be taken to deliver the strongest possible
cyber-security protocol.
In passing…
As
the government prepares the country for the implementation of phase one of
National Health Insurance scheduled for January 2016, the Ministry of Health
held a NHI symposium for health professionals
on Monday of this week at the
Hilton Hotel. Delivering the keynote address was Health Minister Dr. Perry
Gomez who said that because of the narrowed window, the government cannot fail
in its processes in rolling out this policy. The first phase that provides a
basic benefits package will cost $350 - $375 million and since the government’s
current total health cost is in excess $400 million annually, the government
will implement the first phase without imposing any additional taxes on the
Bahamian worker.
The
Ministry of Health announced this week that Mr. Marco Rolle, Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Health, while representing The Bahamas at the
Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Health (CACH) Meeting in the United Kingdom
during the period 9th thru 10th April, 2015, was elected
Vice-Chair of the CACH effective from 1st July, 2015 to 30th
June 2016. The Bahamas takes up the Chair of CACH from 1st July,
2016 to 30th June 2017. This milestone represents the first time
that The Bahamas was elected to this position in The Commonwealth.
Bahamas
Foreign Minister the Hon. Fred Mitchell was in Qatar this week where he met with
Assistant ForeignMinister of Qatar H.E. Mohammed Bin Abdullah Mutib Al
Rumaihi. During the meeting, the ministers discussed a number of
bilateral issues including airlifts involving the country's national flag
carrier Qatar Airlines, tourism and travel between the two countries, a Consul
General appointment, investment possibilities and visa waiver facility between
the two countries. The meeting was held at the Qatar Foreign Ministry in
Doha.Mr. Mitchell was in Qata to attend the 15th annual Doha
Economic Forum.
Attorney
General Sen. Allyson Maynard-Gibson announced this week that retired Supreme Court
Justice Joseph Strachan was appointed to conduct an independent investigation
into the circumstances surrounding the delay in the release of the Black and
Veatch report on the oil spill at the Robinson Road Rubis gas station. The
spill was discovered in December 2012. The government received the report
sometime in February 2014 and released it during a town hall meeting in April
2015.
The
Popeye’s Bahamas Bowl has been acquired by ESPN Events, a subsidiary of ESPN.
The second Popeyes Bahamas Bowl will be played at Nassau's Thomas A. Robinson
National Stadium on
Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015, showcasing schools from Conference
USA and the Mid-American Conference. The bowl was acquired from Bahamas Bowl,
LLC, which owned the inaugural game in 2014.
The
Compliance Commission announced this week that Andrew Strachan has been
appointed to the post of Inspector, effective Thursday, May 7, 2015. Mr.
Strachan is a banker, portfolio manager, relationship manager, and an economist
by profession with over 25 years of experience in international private banking
at Clariden Leu, Nassau Branch, and Credit Suisse Bahamas, notably achieving
outstanding investment performance results with funds invested in international
equity and bond markets.
The
headquarters and warehouse of the former City Markets supermarket chain located
on East West Highway was engulfed in flames
Thursday afternoon, but thankfully
the building was saved through the quick work of our gallant fire fighters. The
edifice did not have a supply of electricity and was abandoned at the time of
the fire. Six firefighters suffered minor injuries of fumes inhalation during
the fire and were taken to hospital for treatment.
Tourism
Minister the Hon. Obie Wilchcombe confirmed this week that a major deal for a
new casino operator for the Sunwings Memories Resort in Lucaya was imminent as
the prospective operator has submitted a down payment to government. This
agreement is expected to strengthen the tourism product in Grand Bahama and
deepen Sunwing’s involvement in the Lucaya property.
About the author: Elcott Coleby is a Deputy Director at the
Bahamas Information Services. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in
Chemistry (B.Sc) and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). He provides
frequent commentary on public policy and communicates the works of the
government. Address all comments to the following email:
egcoleby44@gmail.com
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