To the Ingraham government: ...lay the whole Bluewater Ventures Ltd / BaTelCo transaction on the table of the House of Assembly so that it will be available for public scrutiny

What is the whole truth behind Bluewater?

tribune242 editorial



AFTER a 14-year search for a suitable strategic partner and a lengthy, often acrimonious debate over the past few days, BTC opens its doors today as a privately owned company. Cable & Wireless, with a sound international reputation and solid financing is the new owner. Bluewater Ventures Ltd, the choice of the PLP government, is now history leaving a trail of mystery in its wake.

When one examines details of the bids that were published, it is difficult to understand why Bluewater -- the only company not to produce financials -- was the PLP government's company of choice. Many things have been suggested. Finance Minister Zhivargo Laing considered it a "fronting" operation with Bahamians hidden in the background. Whatever it was, all that has been made public -- and much is still hidden-- suggests that it was a company hastily thrown together especially for this bidding process.

At the end of a heated exchange between Opposition leader Perry Christie, whose government pushed the Bluewater deal to a hasty conclusion, and Prime Minister Ingraham who eliminated Bluewater, Mr Ingraham accepted that Mr Christie's last gesture before he left office "was beneficial to the Bahamas."

As he put out the embers of his dying government, Mr Christie took up his pen and ended the Bluewater deal.

"I would recommend," he wrote, "that the matter not proceed any further at this time."

Mr Christie argued that as his government had been voted out of office, it was only right that the final decision on the future of BTC be left for the new government.

Reading from the records on Monday, April 30, 2007 --two days before the general election -- Mr Ingraham said the PLP Cabinet met with Prime Minister Christie's approval. Mr Christie himself was absent, and so the deputy prime minister was in the chair. Mr Obie Wilchcombe was also absent from that meeting. It was at that meeting that the decision was made to sell BTC to Bluewater.

When asked by a House member what he knew about the Bluewater transaction, Mr Ingraham said he knew of a meeting also held at the Ministry of Finance when then Minister Bradley Roberts, "Brave" Davis, lawyer for Bluewater, and a "man from Bluewater" returned to the room and said "we have a deal."

Mr Ingraham said that before the 2007 election he had announced at an FNM rally that the PLP government had sold what was then BaTelCo to Bluewater. His speculation was that at the end "they ran scared," which caused the last minute change of mind.

As our readers will recall the hand-over in 2007 from one government to the next did not go smoothly. Although the FNM became the government on May 2, it was not until May 4th that it was able to assume office.

In the meantime several ministers of the former PLP government, said Mr Ingraham, went around announcing that the Bluewater deal had been approved and recommended that the persons involved should go to the Cabinet office to get "the letter."

By then the Ingraham government was in charge. Mr Ingraham said that the Secretary to the Cabinet came to him one day to inform him that "some people" were at the office saying that they wanted "the letter" -- obviously the letter approving the sale of BaTelCo to Bluewater.

Mr Ingraham thanked Mr Christie for going to London to testify at the hearing when Bluewater was demanding to be indemnified for the loss of BaTelCo. In Bluewater's agreement with the PLP, the Ingraham government would have had to pay $2.5 million if the exclusivity clause in the agreement had been breached. To get out of the Bluewater deal, the $2.5 million penalty clause was negotiated down to $1.9 million.

Mr Ingraham argued that although Mr Christie did not attend the Cabinet meeting that approved the sale of BaTelCo to Bluewater, the fact that he had given Cabinet members permission to meet, and agreed who should chair the meeting, he could not then unilaterally rescind their decision without another meeting and discussion. Mr Christie argued that he did not change the deal, but decided that his government was at an end and suspended it.

Mr Ingraham knows, said an angered Opposition leader, that "this was a process that I was going to guarantee the integrity of -- if only because Brave Davis was the lawyer -- I was not going to allow this matter to compromise the integrity of my government under no circumstances."

In a heated moment, Mr Christie probably suggested more than he intended. Obviously, he was not happy with the deal. His behaviour at the end shows a great deal of doubt. Already he had started the hand washing process.

Bluewater was a deal made on behalf of the Bahamian people. They are entitled to know the facts -- especially why Bluewater was given so many preferential concessions.

We feel it the duty of the Ingraham government to lay the whole Bluewater transaction on the table of the House so that it will be available for public scrutiny.

March 28, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International