AG denies port conflict
By KEVA LIGHTBOURNE ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ kdl@nasguard.com:
Attorney General John Delaney yesterday dismissed a suggestion that there is a possible conflict of interest with his office acting as the lawyer for the government in the Arawak Cay Port deal and the law firm where he used to be a partner representing the Arawak Cay Port Development Company.
Delaney, who was speaking in the Senate, made it clear that no such position arises as he has excluded himself from any involvement with regard to the matter.
The question of conflict of interest arose when Opposition Senate Leader Allyson Maynard-Gibson called on the government to make a very clear statement on the issue to the Bahamian people so they would be assured that no conflict of interest exists.
Delaney said, "I wish to make it clear that I am a former partner of Higgs and Johnson. I am no longer a partner. There was an inference made by Senator Gibson, who referred to Higgs and Johnson being the attorneys for the Arawak Cay Port Company and me being the attorney general, by inference suggesting that there may be a conflict. In fact, she said she hopes there were none.
"Well I can confirm that in fact there is none. I want to make it clear that I am a former partner of Higgs and Johnson. I am no longer a partner at Higgs and Johnson and moreover I have had absolutely no contact whatsoever in the Office of the Attorney General with respect to this particular matter."
He added, "I insisted that I had absolutely no contact with that matter or indeed any other matter that my firm might have been involved with when I was a partner."
But Maynard-Gibson insisted: "I never said anything about him at all. The attorney general's office is the government's lawyer. That is a fact."
The government has been negotiating with local shipping interests for 18 months to establish the new port at Arawak Cay. A deal with 19 private shareholders was signed on Monday to create the new $65 million port.
The goal is that all commercial shipping will move from Bay Street by Christmas, opening up the city's center for redevelopment. The joint enterprise will be known as the APD Limited.
Delaney was a member of the law firm Higgs and Johnson and managing partner since 2007. He was appointed attorney general last November.
May 14, 2010
thenassauguardian
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.
Showing posts with label Arawak Cay port Bahamas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arawak Cay port Bahamas. Show all posts
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Arawak Cay port development: A port Perry Christie cannot change
A port Christie cannot change
tribune242 editorial:
OPPOSITION Leader Perry Christie must have been in jesting mood when he threatened would-be investors that he would reverse any agreement signed with the Ingraham government that would locate the $65 million container port at Arawak Cay.
And to put the final seal on the threat, he declared that he was the person who would win the next general election. We pause here to suggest that were the PLP to win the 2012 election, Mr Christie, as leader, would be taking the Gordon Brown exit through the back door. We certainly never expect to see him prime minister again.
However, we all know that were he to try to change this agreement, before he could complete the first pirouette of the Christie shuffle he would be so buried in law suits that he would not be able to dig his way out -- nor would his followers be able to dig their way in to find him.
And now that Prime Minister Ingraham has secured the agreement with so many iron hoops, any hope of Mr Christie changing one tittle is no longer in the realm of possibility. It is as foolish of him to have made those threats as it was of Paul Adderley, many years ago on behalf of the PLP, to threaten Sol Kerzner that should Mr Ingraham lose the 2002 election he would have to renegotiate the Paradise Island agreement with the PLP government. The PLP lost the election. The Paradise Island resort was built in record time and became the catalyst that revitalised this country's tourist industry. Seeing Mr Kerzner take the plunge in a country written off as bad news, many substantial investors -- not drug kingpins as happened under the PLP-- followed. It was the turning point that led to this country's comeback.
"No successor government likes to contemplate having to renegotiate its predecessors' agreements, even bad agreements particularly with foreign investors," Mr Adderley told Mr Kerzner. "But this agreement is so bad, so exploitive -- that every Bahamian, including those who still support the Prime Minister together with the international finance community, would applaud a renegotiation."
We don't know who he thought he was fooling with such bombastic words and bullying tactics, but it was all a bunch of nonsense. All those who supported Mr Adderley in such puny thoughts, should turn their heads in shame today as they pass the Atlantis resort, a resort that saved this country's bacon during its rejected years. Mr Christie could not have been one of their number at that time because for the five years that he headed the Bahamas government it was openly talked that his one ambition was to leave the BahaMar resort on Cable Beach as his legacy to match Mr Ingraham's legacy -- Atlantis, Paradise Island. However, he missed the mark because of his indecisiveness -- as usual he had not signed the final agreement when time came for the changing of the guard.
And now to talk of relocating the container port when, according to him, he becomes prime minister is really a pathetic joke.
He says that given a second chance, he would move the port to his and his party's preferred location on the island's southwestern shores.
At the time that the 2005 Environmental Impact Assessment study was completed for the proposed commercial shipping facilities, the PLP government made the public believe that the southwest Bahamas was the location recommended by the independent advisers. It was only after the PLP was removed from the government that it was discovered that the public had been told a half truth.
As Tribune Business pointed out in an article last year, "based on the criteria employed by Coastal Systems International's assessment team, Arawak Cay scored 12 points, compared to the southwestern port site's 10 points on environmental impact. Where Arawak Cay rated especially high was on the minimal impact to the terrestrial environment and water quality."
However, Arawak Cay lost out because it did not fit in with the Christie administration's preferred site for its long-term master planning. That master plan took in a wide sweep of the southwest, where all kinds of developments, including private, had been planned. This excluded Arawak Cay.
Anyway, the guarantee of a 20-year exclusivity period for the Arawak Cay port development makes it impossible for Mr Christie or any other government to contemplate a change of venue.
The agreement is made exclusive for a 20-year period for not only all of New Providence and Paradise Island, but also within 20 miles of the shoreline and any other port for the landing of containerized, bulk or break bulk cargo or vehicles.
Anyway, Mr Christie's little joke was a good laugh while it lasted.
May 14, 2010
tribune242
tribune242 editorial:
OPPOSITION Leader Perry Christie must have been in jesting mood when he threatened would-be investors that he would reverse any agreement signed with the Ingraham government that would locate the $65 million container port at Arawak Cay.
And to put the final seal on the threat, he declared that he was the person who would win the next general election. We pause here to suggest that were the PLP to win the 2012 election, Mr Christie, as leader, would be taking the Gordon Brown exit through the back door. We certainly never expect to see him prime minister again.
However, we all know that were he to try to change this agreement, before he could complete the first pirouette of the Christie shuffle he would be so buried in law suits that he would not be able to dig his way out -- nor would his followers be able to dig their way in to find him.
And now that Prime Minister Ingraham has secured the agreement with so many iron hoops, any hope of Mr Christie changing one tittle is no longer in the realm of possibility. It is as foolish of him to have made those threats as it was of Paul Adderley, many years ago on behalf of the PLP, to threaten Sol Kerzner that should Mr Ingraham lose the 2002 election he would have to renegotiate the Paradise Island agreement with the PLP government. The PLP lost the election. The Paradise Island resort was built in record time and became the catalyst that revitalised this country's tourist industry. Seeing Mr Kerzner take the plunge in a country written off as bad news, many substantial investors -- not drug kingpins as happened under the PLP-- followed. It was the turning point that led to this country's comeback.
"No successor government likes to contemplate having to renegotiate its predecessors' agreements, even bad agreements particularly with foreign investors," Mr Adderley told Mr Kerzner. "But this agreement is so bad, so exploitive -- that every Bahamian, including those who still support the Prime Minister together with the international finance community, would applaud a renegotiation."
We don't know who he thought he was fooling with such bombastic words and bullying tactics, but it was all a bunch of nonsense. All those who supported Mr Adderley in such puny thoughts, should turn their heads in shame today as they pass the Atlantis resort, a resort that saved this country's bacon during its rejected years. Mr Christie could not have been one of their number at that time because for the five years that he headed the Bahamas government it was openly talked that his one ambition was to leave the BahaMar resort on Cable Beach as his legacy to match Mr Ingraham's legacy -- Atlantis, Paradise Island. However, he missed the mark because of his indecisiveness -- as usual he had not signed the final agreement when time came for the changing of the guard.
And now to talk of relocating the container port when, according to him, he becomes prime minister is really a pathetic joke.
He says that given a second chance, he would move the port to his and his party's preferred location on the island's southwestern shores.
At the time that the 2005 Environmental Impact Assessment study was completed for the proposed commercial shipping facilities, the PLP government made the public believe that the southwest Bahamas was the location recommended by the independent advisers. It was only after the PLP was removed from the government that it was discovered that the public had been told a half truth.
As Tribune Business pointed out in an article last year, "based on the criteria employed by Coastal Systems International's assessment team, Arawak Cay scored 12 points, compared to the southwestern port site's 10 points on environmental impact. Where Arawak Cay rated especially high was on the minimal impact to the terrestrial environment and water quality."
However, Arawak Cay lost out because it did not fit in with the Christie administration's preferred site for its long-term master planning. That master plan took in a wide sweep of the southwest, where all kinds of developments, including private, had been planned. This excluded Arawak Cay.
Anyway, the guarantee of a 20-year exclusivity period for the Arawak Cay port development makes it impossible for Mr Christie or any other government to contemplate a change of venue.
The agreement is made exclusive for a 20-year period for not only all of New Providence and Paradise Island, but also within 20 miles of the shoreline and any other port for the landing of containerized, bulk or break bulk cargo or vehicles.
Anyway, Mr Christie's little joke was a good laugh while it lasted.
May 14, 2010
tribune242
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