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Last Updated: Dec 29, 2011 - 2:18:31 AM |
 Dear Editor,
It is not surprising that Hubert “The Dictator” Ingraham finds himself
knee deep in a cesspool of embarrassment as a result of the last-minute
cancellation of a meeting to officially handover the Bahamas
Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) to its new owner, Cable &
Wireless. That the event had to be called off is yet another example of
incompetence of the two individuals who are in charge of the management
of The Bahamas’ economy.
As the Minister of Finance, Prime Minister Ingraham reportedly delegated
responsibility for the sale of BTC to his political protégé Zhivargo
Laing, in his capacity as Minister of State for Finance; nonetheless, it
was incumbent on the Prime Minister to ensure that his junior minister
covered all the necessary areas to ensure that no snags developed to
prevent the giveaway of the government-owned corporation to Cable &
Wireless.
Apparently, Laing proved to be not up to the task and he let his boss
down big time. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from the
“surprise” revelations that resulted in the government on Monday having
to cancel the meeting to officially hand over BTC to Cable &
Wireless.
The press had been notified in an e-mail from Bahamas Information
Services (BIS), the government’s news agency, that a press conference
would be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, and some members of the press were
already at the press conference site when they received word that the
event had been called off. BIS had informed media houses of the
cancellation in another e-mail, reportedly one hour after the event was
to be held, which suggests that BIS was unaware that it was to be
cancelled.
Yet, on The Sawyer Report, an interview show hosted by Jerome Sawyer on
ZNS-TV, Laing either attempted to mislead the public or he was not
telling the truth when he indicated that he was unaware that the
handover was supposed to take place earlier.
Bahamas Press (BP), the online news service that has been closely
following developments in this matter, on Tuesday was blunter in its
assessment of Laing’s remarks on The Sawyer Report. Noting that April 4
was the day that Prime Minister Ingraham told Parliament the official
handover would take place, BP said it was “shocked when ‘Lying’ Laing
told the media he didn’t know why those who sent the notice (BIS) to
members of the press did so and that they must have known why they did.”
Be that as it may, this is a huge embarrassment to Ingraham and Laing
and indeed the entire FNM government. Moreover, if what BP reported is
correct, the embarrassment is about to become catastrophic, considering
the potential scenario that could unfold as Cable & Wireless deals
with the business fiasco it is faced with in its efforts to straighten
out the mess created by Ingraham and Laing.
According to BP, conditions for the sale of BTC to Cable & Wireless
have not been approved by the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), which
is paid “over one million in taxes” annually by BTC for its business
operations in Freeport and “based on clauses in the Hawksbill Creek
Agreement such a sale would need the blessing of the Port.”
If all this is true, it’s incredible that Laing was not aware of this
aspect of the sale being approved. As the Member of Parliament for the
Marco City constituency of Grand Bahama, there’s no possible way, unless
he is even more incompetent than some people say he is, that Laing
should not have been aware of this fact.
BP also claimed that not only does the GBPA want the taxes due to it on
the sale of BTC, but it also wants “a 1.5 per cent ownership in the new
BTC Company.”
I placed a call to GBPA President Ian Rolle this morning to find out
whether all this is true. His secretary said he was not in and my call
had not been returned up to the time I decided to write this. But one
thing I’m pretty sure of is that BTC is a company that operates in the
Freeport area and as such it is required to pay a licence fee to the
GBPA. What many Bahamians fail to realize is that under the provisions
of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, the GBPA is essentially a “government
within a government.”
Under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, signed in August of 1955,
Freeport’s founder Wallace Groves was granted 50 acres of “crown land”
at one pound an acre (the equivalent of $2.80 cents at the time) and was
given sweeping powers to develop the land he had purchased. The name
Freeport is symbolic of the fact that one of the provisions of the
Hawksbill Creek Agreement is that all imported goods for the development
of the area would come in duty free (bonded), a law which still exists
today. At one time Freeport even had its own police force. In subsequent
years, this responsibility and the responsibility for law and order
(police), Customs and Immigration were turned over to the elected
government of The Bahamas. But for the most part, Freeport is still
“governed” by the GPBA.
And it is this fact that makes the dilemma currently facing Ingraham and
Laing all the more intriguing. Because of his dictatorial style of
leadership, Ingraham now finds himself in a position that could result
in him having to “eat crow,” so to speak. For the past two years, he has
been embroiled in a public row with Sir Jack Hayward, one of the
principal owners of the GBPA, as a result of his refusal in December of
2009 to renew the work permit of Hannes Babak, chairman of the GBPA.
Babak had been hand-picked by Sir Jack and Lady Henrietta St. George,
widow of the late Edward St. George, the other co-owner of the GBPA, to
extricate Freeport from the pit of economic despair and there were
strong indications that he had Freeport headed in the right direction.
With important economic ties in Europe, Babak made frequent trips abroad
to encourage investors to come to Grand Bahama and there reportedly
were a number of promising projects lined up when Ingraham arbitrarily
decided not to renew his work permit. What was so unbelievable about his
decision was that he made it without consulting with the then Minister
of Immigration Branville McCartney and made the announcement, even
before Babak had been informed, at a press conference at Nassau
International Airport en route to a United Nations Conference on Climate
Change in Denmark.
If he now finds himself having to “beg” Sir Jack to help him reach a
reasonable agreement with the GBPA to complete the sale of BTC to Cable
& Wireless, it would certainly be poetic justice. My understanding
is that Babak was in town this past weekend; therefore, I would suggest
that Ingraham also find out if he still is in Freeport and also seek his
assistance in helping him out of the mess he has created. I strongly
suspect that the GBPA is still desirous of having Babak back as
chairman, so maybe he would accede to Ingraham’s request in return for
his work permit. He is known to be a good negotiator.
Sincerely,
Oswald T. Brown
Freeport, Grand Bahama
© Copyright 2011 by thebahamasweekly.com
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