Conspiracy claims against Roberts
By CANDIA DAMES ~ Guardian News Editor ~ candia@nasguard.com:
A former senior engineer at the Water and Sewerage Corporation, who was fired in 2006 for alleged conflict of interest, claimed yesterday that then PLP Minister Bradley Roberts and then Chairman Don Demeritte led a conspiracy that would have bilked Bahamians of millions of dollars.
Mario Bastian, who testified in the Industrial Tribunal, claimed that Roberts and Demeritte instructed the corporation's general manager at the time to annul the bidding process for a reverse osmosis plant at Arawak Cay, and ordered that the corporation negotiate with BK Water Limited/Veolia. BK Water's principal was Jerome Fitzgerald, now a PLP senator.
Bastian was testifying under oath before Industrial Tribunal President Harrison Lockhart.
He suggested that going with BK Water would have cost taxpayers many millions of unnecessary dollars.
Under cross-examination by the corporation's attorney, Thomas Evans QC, Bastian admitted that he had personally had no conversation with then Minister Roberts regarding the bidding process. Roberts had responsibility for the corporation.
Bastian was fired on September 4, 2006, nearly 20 years after he was hired, but he alleges he was victimized.
The corporation fired Bastian saying it had a lack of trust and confidence in him, according to the evidence. The allegation was that Bastian was an officer of a company that was in direct competition with the corporation, thus giving rise to a conflict of interest situation.
The engineer — who is represented by attorney Pericles Maillis — is claiming breach of contract, wrongful dismissal, and damage to his reputation among other things.
Bastian contends in his originating application that he was victimized by the corporation because he refused to engage in unprofessional and unscrupulous management practices.
He told the Tribunal that he received intimidating phone calls from W&SC Chairman Demeritte. The engineer claimed that at one point Demeritte called him at home and pressed him for information that could help the corporation get rid of General Manager Abraham Butler. Bastian said Demeritte told him that he had the power to promote him (Bastian) but he had to be a team player.
He also said he took the chairman's statements to mean, "If you don't work with me the highway would be your route, and so said so done."
Bastian said, "I felt intimidated in doing my job.
"If in the course of performing your job you made recommendations that were contrary to what persons in certain quarters of the corporation wanted... there was a distinct possibility that there will be repercussions."'
He claimed he told the chairman that he believed in getting promotions based on merit.
Evans submitted that there was no intimidation.
Asked by Evans why he never complained about the alleged actions of the chairman, Bastian said allegations had been made against the chairman in the past, but to no avail.
Questioned repeatedly yesterday by Evans, Bastian denied that he was involved in a conflict of interest. The engineer was a director in CBA Engineering Limited. Bastian told the Tribunal he resigned as a director after the corporation made the conflict of interest allegation.
"I elected to resign from the company (CBA). I did what any good citizen would have done under the circumstances," Bastian said. "I did nothing wrong and yet still I was penalized."
The engineer said he was angered by the allegations that had been lodged against his professional character.
He said, "Once the bullet is out the gun it's very difficult to control the damage."
But Evans suggested that the reason Bastian resigned from CBA is that he wanted to distance himself from a clear conflict of interest.
Bastian however, insisted that the corporation was unable to show any clear conflict of interest.
Evans said that Bastian was accusing the then minister, chairman and other senior officials at the corporation of "a dastardly conspiracy to rob Bahamian people of millions of dollars."
Asked to explain why he accused Roberts of conspiracy, Bastian said the instruction that came through the general manager was that the minister and chairman had given a directive to end the bidding process and engage in negotiations with BK Water/Veolia.
"This was not a standard process," he told the Tribunal.
Asked if he had relied on a hearsay statement from the general manager, Bastian repeated that he had received instructions from the GM and negotiations commenced with BK Water/Veolia.
He claimed that the chairman and other management personnel "manipulated" the corporation.
During his testimony, Bastian said BK Water never got a contract. He told the Tribunal it was because there was a change in government.
Evans said parts of Bastian's testimony were irrelevant.
What the Tribunal has to decide, he pointed out, is whether the corporation was justified in terminating Bastian.
Bastian told the Tribunal that there were clear instances of conflict of interest situations in the corporation, but he was the one singled out and his matter was not even a conflict of interest.
But Evans said whether or not other people who were guilty of conflict of interest were dealt with has no bearing on Bastian's matter before the Tribunal.
Maillis, however, insisted that Bastian was marked and that was part of the victimization.
Evans said he had a problem with Bastian going on a witch-hunt about others allegedly in conflict of interest situations.
President Lockhart then noted that there is a line of authority in industrial law that seems to suggest that the singling out of an individual who may be a part of a group of individuals seems to be unfair.
Pointing to what he suggested was a conflict of interest, Bastian said Simmons Manufacturing (which manufactures shoes) supplies boots to the corporation. The owner's wife is a manager at the corporation, he pointed out.
Evans submitted that the corporation had a relationship with Simmons Manufacturing long before Daphne Simmons was hired, but Bastian insisted this was not the case.
Bastian also claimed that he was blacklisted by the corporation after he was fired, in that the state-owned entity refused to add him to its list of approved engineers. He said he suffered severe mental and economic stress. Bastian told the Tribunal that he is currently unemployed.
Roberts and Demeritte do not have legal representation at the Tribunal. With Bastian repeatedly raising very serious allegations against them, it is unclear whether they will seek representation to defend themselves.
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