Response
to Tribune Article 14 August 2015:
“Judicial
Review Granted Over Fundamentally Flawed HCA Consultation” by Davies Associates Ltd. (DAL), a Bahamian
development advisory and project Management Company based in Freeport.
We
disagree with the basis on which Fred Smith QC has obtained a judicial review
by the Supreme Court into the legitimacy of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement
Review Committee (HCARC).
We
agree that the public interest is not served by the Government of the Bahamas suppressing
dissemination of the McKinsey report into the economic prospects for Grand Bahama Island. It
implies that the report was critical of the government’s conduct and/or it made
recommendations that the government does not feel inclined to follow.
But
it does not follow that the HCARC’s mandate was invalid as a consequence.
It
makes eminent sense for the government to seek the considered views of
interested parties without prejudicing their objective opinion by exposing them
to the views of McKinsey. Only in this way can the government ascertain whether
there is general agreement to whatever the McKinsey report concluded.
However
the HCARC has now completed its work and has reported to government and so the
need to avoid such ‘conditioning of opinion’ has passed and it is reasonable
for government to commit to publishing both the McKinsey report and transcripts
of the submissions to the HCARC.
In
this way the public interest is served by enabling all interested parties to
understand the information on which the government has based whatever proposals
emerge from the consultative period.
This
is what open government is about and the public interest argument directed to
publication of the outcome of the HCARC’s deliberations is what Fred Smith QC
and his colleague ought to have based their case.
For more
information please contact:
Andrew
Davies on (242) 727 1466
DAL has worked extensively throughout the region
and has acquired considerable knowledge of investment strategies and
structures.
