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VOLUME:115 No.42, JANUARY 23RD, 2018

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FACE-TO-FACE: FRANK WATSON - FROM LONG ISLAND BOY TO HALLS OF POWER , PAGE 10

I told them check. They said: ‘You going to Haiti’

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

JEAN RONY JeanCharles was waiting for his friend to purchase a few cigarettes before heading to a job site when he was arrested by immigration officers in early September last year.

Despite having been born in The Bahamas, educated, and treated at hospital, he did not have any form of personal identification

when he was approached and asked to prove his legal status.

At 35, Mr Jean-Charles’ case has reignited longstanding bitter debate surrounding citizenship and the entitlement of migrant children born in The Bahamas.

The controversy surrounding his extended detention and later expulsion from the country has raised questions about the government’s policy and enforcement measures, and its compliance with both

DAVIS DEFENDS THREE-YEAR DEAL

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Leader Philip “Brave” Davis insisted yesterday there is “nothing wrong” with the manner in which the former Christie administration issued a contract to a high-ranking Bridge Authority executive, saying it all boils down to “being stylistic more than principle”.

In an interview with

The Tribune yesterday, Mr Davis said the government must “cease and desist” exposing confidential clauses in contracted workers’ agreements.

His criticism comes after this newspaper on Monday reported that Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis ordered an investigation across government agencies to probe contracts issued under the PLP after it was SEE PAGE SIX

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local and international law.

“My boy was going to work,” he told The Tribune, sitting hunched over on the tiny porch of the one-bedroom home he now shares with seven other people in Port-de-Paix, Haiti.

“He come wake me up around six to go to work with him, when I was going

to work he stop in the yard (on Fire Trail Road) to get one cigarette.

“When he stop, immigration pull up in the yard, they asked me for an ID and I told them I didn’t have any ID on me at the time.

“They ask me for a travel document, I said I didn’t have it at the time, it got

JEAN Rony Jean-Charles pictured in Haiti.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/ Tribune Staff burned saving some people in a house, so we did done do a report for it.”

Last year’s blaze at a shantytown off Cowpen Road on March 23 displaced seven families, leaving eight adults and 20 children homeless.

“I was living through Fire Trail,” he explained, “it’s

CRASH PILOT HAD NO COMMERCIAL LICENCE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE pilot of the Piper Aztec plane that crashed, killing himself and five other people off Andros last week, did not have a commercial pilot’s licence and was hoping to get one after returning to flight school in a matter of weeks, according to his sister, Shantell Miller.

Darren Clarke, 45, hoped to work someday for Western Air on his return from flight school, having spent at least “five years” flying in the Bahamas on his private licence, Ms Miller, a nurse, said. His piloting activity was his only source of income. A former boat captain, he left Stuart’s Cove several years ago to be a full-time pilot.

Delvin Major, head of the Air Accident Investigation Department of the Department of Civil Aviation, yesterday confirmed Clarke’s lack of a

DARREN CLARKE commercial pilot’s licence.

He said such licences are necessary to charge people for a flight. The Civil Aviation Authority regulates such matters.

Mr Major also revealed that Clarke was certified to operate only a single engine aircraft, not a multi-engine one. A multi-engine instrument rating is required for flight charter work around the world.

For her part, Ms Miller, 35, said her brother leased his Piper Aztec plane from a businessman, a man who she said called the family after last week’s crash and assured them the plane was properly maintained and insured. Mr Major confirmed the plane was insured yesterday, adding he expects to receive maintenance records for the aircraft today.

Ms Miller described her brother in glowing terms, calling him protective, responsible and a stickler for rules. However, his lack of a commercial licence is likely to be seen as critical amid discourse about enforcing civil aviation regulations and laws.

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Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE FIVE

like a village but it’s a Bahamian area but the house did get burn down and all my stuff got burned. I saved them people them who was in the yard, it was me who saved them, if it wasn’t for me all of them would have died in the house.”

SEE PAGES TWO & THREE

POLICE OFFICER ON RAPE CHARGE

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER police officer was yesterday charged in a Magistrate’s Court with allegations he had sexual intercourse with a 25-year-old woman earlier this month without her consent.

Former Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) Constable Stephano Kenny Curry, 24, of Joe Farrington Road, stood before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt faced with one count of rape stemming from the January 14 incident.

He was not required to enter a plea and the matter was adjourned to March 1 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI).

He was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim.

PAGE 2, Tuesday, January 23, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

I told them - check.

They said: ‘You going to Haiti’

from page one

ATTORNEY Fred Smith hugs Jean Rony Jean-Charles in Haiti. Photos: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

He was referring to a family of seven, the father of whom told The Tribune last year he awoke to his home engulfed in flames.

On that early morning in September, Mr Jean-Charles said it wasn’t his speech that prompted officers to arrest him, but his Creole-sounding name.

“So when I gave them my name,” he continued, “they say ‘oh you is a Haitian let’s go,’ and he hold me down by my neck and shirt collar and he search me, and tru’in I didn’t have nothing on me. I already gave my phone to my friend to hold.

Then they carried me to the Detention Centre. I told them they can check my name in the system, they can see me in the system, they never check it.”

He said the officers had reassured him that once he got to the facility, he would be released promptly if his story checked out.

“So I wait another month, I tell a next person check it for me, he never checked.

They said you going Haiti, so I just stopped worrying about it because I told them if I go Haiti how am I going to survive in Haiti? I don’t know nothing about Haiti, I never been there before, but they wasn’t listening to me. That’s how I ended up here (Haiti).”

Mr Jean-Charles’ attorney, Fred Smith, filed an application contesting the lawfulness of his detention on November 29, 2017.

However, it would later be confirmed by former Director of Immigration William Pratt that Mr JeanCharles had been sent to Port au Prince, Haiti, on November 24 after not being able to prove he was in the country legally.

Before that revelation was made in December, his sister Clotilde Jean-Charles told The Tribune she had been attempting to see her brother for nearly three weeks – prompting her to hire an attorney.

Ms Jean-Charles said she was called by a close friend who witnessed her

THE TRIBUNE and attorney Fred Smith flew to Haiti to find Jean Rony Jean-Charles. brother’s apprehension.

However, she was unable to go to him for some days due to her work schedule and other issues. Instead, she said she sent copies of his documents – including his birth certificate and school records – to the CRDC through her friend.

“I was between work and dealing with other issues,” she said, “but I always ask for update, she told me provide this document and so I gave her everything I had.

She took it in, we’re waiting, waiting, and then they said oh they will release him, but the next time they said they couldn’t find anything we gave.”

She continued: “So I had to go do everything all over, get another birth certificate, another school letter. They got the birth certificate, my late mom passport and old work permit, hoping and thinking they would look into it, but nothing came out of it.”

Ms Jean-Charles and her four brothers, one of whom is now deceased, were raised by their Haitian mother, who worked legally as a maid on a work permit, The Tribune was told.

Ms Jean-Charles is the only sibling who holds a Bahamian passport.

“At the time, all of us was young,” she explained.

“Since I’m the oldest, I was the one that ended up getting my stuff sorted out.

At that time they (brothers) must be didn’t see the necessity of it. My younger brother who is 30 now is

trying to fight to get his stuff out the way. It’s just getting more and more complicated now that she’s (mother) not here. I was in my early 20s (when I got a passport), I applied when I was 18, and now everything change and it’s like more complication – when it was my time it was much easier.

Now they coming with different stuff you have to get, and a lot of these things cost money.”

The family matriarch, Laitilde Jean-Charles, took sick and died in 2012 at 55.

Ms Jean-Charles says her National Insurance records indicated she was only short by three of four contributions. Despite not having applied for citizenship, she said her brothers had obtained several travel documents over the years despite never travelling.

The issuance of those certificates of identity were discontinued by the previous administration, and replaced with the Belonger’s permit and an updated policy in November 2014.

Ms Jean-Charles told The Tribune yesterday she was elated to see photos of her brother, giving her something more tangible than just his voice over the phone.

“Right now, I’m excited, I’m happy because even though he’s in a different place it’s best to be alive. I was thrilled when I spoke to him for the first time and I was even more thrilled when I went to work this (Monday) morning and I

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, January 23, 2018, PAGE 3

ATTORNEY Fred Smith with Jean Rony Jean-Charles in Haiti. pick up the paper and I saw that he was on the front page.”

Ms Jean-Charles said: “I’m praying that they find a way for him to return back because this is all he knows. This is truly home and I don’t know how it will be for us, we here and him to be over there. It would really feel awkward.

He ain’t even that fluent in the Creole. Out of all of us, I’m the only one that has a passport everyone had an issue.”

According to his attorney, Mr Jean-Charles went to Albury Sayles Primary, T G Glover Primary, S C McPherson Junior High, and C V Bethel Senior School. He was hospitalised several years ago for blood poisoning, he said, which left him with recurring episodes of numbness in his legs.

To find Mr Jean-Charles, The Tribune and attorney Fred Smith travelled to the northern city of Cap-Haitian, and then chartered a plane into Portde-Paix. The four-seater charter touched down on a dirt strip populated by cars, dirt bikes, donkeys and pedestrians – all unfazed by

the aircraft’s descent.

When his lawyer made contact, Mr Jean-Charles made no indication of who he was and seemed unmoved by the group’s enthusiasm to have finally located him.

He later told The Tribune he had long resigned himself as forgotten by his family.

He said his experience at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre was unremarkable from the scores of stories already told by former detainees, with living conditions fluctuating based on the volume of migrants and the whims of guards.

“At the detention centre, I was s****** in a toilet,” he said, slowly curling his lips into a wry smile.

It was the first of only a handful of instances that Mr Jean-Charles showed any emotion during the visit.

Although he is no longer detained, he told The Tribune he remains imprisoned mentally, unable to reconcile with the shock of his sudden transplant into abject poverty.

Mr Jean-Charles said he has not used indoor plumbing since he left New Providence on a plane to

Photos: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff Port au Prince, just one of many “luxuries” he has gained a heavy appreciation for due to severe lack.

As his plane taxied out of The Bahamas, he asked an officer to use the bathroom and was refused. Unable to hold his urine for the duration of the trip, he urinated on himself.

It would be the first in a seemingly never-ending stream of physical and emotional degradation – part culture shock and part trauma.

“I don’t know why they deport me, two to one they probably don’t know the reason why they deport me.

When I was in the Detention Centre, I told them, I say check my date of birth, December 5, 1982, I know I ain’ supposed to be here (in the Detention Centre)..

“But they don’t check and it’s wrong. You supposed to check the person background. I’m not gonna lie, I been to jail before, and when I did my time, I was out, they released me to the gate. One stupid detention centre can’t check? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Mr Jean-Charles was arrested for possession of a marijuana joint when he was 16. He was fined and

REPRESENTATIVES from The Tribune with attorney Fred Smith in Haiti. sentenced to one month in prison.

“One Monday morning, Monday morning,” he said, again recalling the day of his arrest by Immigration.

During the visit, he often returned to this memory as if still struggling to reconcile with his circumstances.

“I was chilling, I just chilling, my phone on the side

of me, just finish talking to my brethren about work. I like work, I like doing for myself and having my own things. We just stopped for dollar worth of cigarettes, I see the immigration gone to my brethren getting off on him. “Then they come to me and I give them my name and my date of birth.

They didn’t even check,

they say when we reach the Detention Centre they gonna sort everything.

“So I wait, and I wait, they cost me to lose my job, and now I’m in Haiti suffering. Like the prime minister say carry all the Haitians, all the Haitians gotta go back to Haiti, but I’m not Haitian. I don’t even know where I’m at.”

PAGE 4, Tuesday, January 23, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

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Step one for Minnis - weeding out the corruption PRIME Minister Dr Hubert A Minnis minced no words when he spoke at Bahamas Business Outlook last week.

Before a packed house at the Baha Mar Convention Centre, the prime minister won over an audience disgusted and fed up with the obstacles in the way of accomplishing the smallest required task. He spoke frankly, citing the 2017 World Bank Annual Report listing The Bahamas as 119th overall out of 190 countries in Ease of Doing Business. He rattled off figures that reinforced what attendees already knew. In every aspect from getting a building permit to renewing a business license, the words ease and doing business in The Bahamas do not even belong in the same sentence.

The Bahamas’ ranking on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business scale was appalling, but what the prime minister did not address was the incestuous link of a culture of corruption that created a world of paper, giving those who handled all that paper the power to speed things up or slow them down commensurate with opportunities for pay-offs.

“Having been a businessman for many years, I know the frustration that business owners feel in complying with certain government processes,” the prime minister said. Using a basic warehouse as the model for new construction, The Bahamas ranked 106th out of 190 countries in obtaining a building permit, 117th in obtaining a connection for permanent electricity at the site. For registering property, the country ranked 167th and 142nd in obtaining credit. The only categories in which we ranked at a relatively acceptable level were obeying orders -- 55th for paying taxes and 74th for enforcing contracts.

We could cite horror stories that would make you wonder why anyone bothers going into business. We know of one man who has formed a Bahamian company with a Bahamian partner offering products and service that will aid the country. He is the ideal investor, experienced and financially capable.

Both personally and professionally, has a stellar international reputation. In addition to the company, he and his wife are building a multi-million dollar house in an exclusive community. They have poured more than $2m into its construction. Yet their lawyers are still trying to complete the conveyance for the property and the company is still trying to open a bank account.

That’s one case with multiple challenges.

Multiply that by hundreds and you get a sense of the size of the problem.

Dozens of businesses are stalled, unable to renew business licenses or import goods because they cannot renew their Customs bond because they cannot get letters of good standing from NIB, not because they are not paid up but because NIB has a “backlog”. If the rumours are true that NIB is not

releasing letters of good standing until January 31, the same day as business licenses have to be renewed, then every business will have to pay a penalty for being late or government will have to extend the deadline and try to find a reasonable explanation for something that is inexcusable. Anyone who has ever been to a National Insurance Board office to get a letter of good standing will have seen the inefficiency with which the antiquated process is handled. These letters should be automatic, available online just like a VAT receipt.

Once payment is made and clears, the account should show satisfactory status and someone at the business should be able to print out the document in his or her office. In an era when you can order everything from a pizza to a Japanese style kit home online, pay in a flash, print a receipt or use your phone as a wallet, how do we expect The Bahamas to compete when we are still running pieces of paper between offices?

Some of those same businesses that are sending to NIB daily are almost at their wit’s end. It is hardest on those covered under the Light Industries Encouragement Act who cannot use their duty free Customs bond and are running out of supplies. The same hardship applies to a restaurant that needs to import ingredients under its reduced duty provisions. Business slows, customers get angry, turn elsewhere, perhaps to a non-Bahamian supplier and storage charges mount.

There is only one real reason why we still do business like it was done 100 years ago – corruption. In the old days, people used to count their chances for stealing or taking money as part of their informal pay package.

Asked how a job’s pay was, a worker would answer openly, “Wages bad, but chances real good.” Chances were the opportunities to steal clothing from the warehouse in the back or get someone to slip a few dollars under the table for a favour. Families clothed and fed themselves on chances and good chances became an undercurrent of the gray economy.

Today, desperation for paper documents makes for ‘chances’ among the public service, many of whom work in deplorable buildings and circumstances and feel justified. But every pay-off to get something expedited fuels the culture of corruption, makes the honest person’s wait longer and disrupts the already slow system.

Corruption and ease of doing business are inexorably linked and until we break the back of the former and find new ways to circumvent the “need to see your face” construct, we will continue to suffer the anti-business malaise.

Dr Minnis, you have two battles on your hands when you tackle ease of doing business and we wish you well on both.

Hard work to give NIB easy money EDITOR, The Tribune.

LETTERS

THIS is an open letter to Ministers Brent Symonette and Dionisio d’Aguilar, Gentlemen: You are the only people that I know in this struggling little government, so you are it.

I know you will see Peter Turnquest tomorrow so please pass this on.

I was delighted to be granted a work permit for a housekeeper, and thank you for that Brent. Very professional and modern plastic card with photo, etc.

I was so delighted that I immediately completed the application for an NIB card for the new employee, got the requirements off the application (need passport and work permit), ticked those boxes and off I went to the Fox Hill sub-station this morning (January 22).

A few people were in the customer chairs and I looked around and the guy at the information desk was not there, but someone in the customer chairs, relaxed with arms outstretched over the other chairs, asked if he could “help” me.

letters@tribunemedia.net Oh, I said eagerly, “yes”.

“I am here to get a National Insurance card for a new employee”. You could see the angst disappear from his face as he says “oh, you gotta go to Blue Hill Road for that” . (He wasn’t going to have to leave that comfy chair after all ). I said in disbelief “Blue Hill Road?

You want me to go to Blue Hill Rd?“ “Oh yes,” he says, “and you have to take the employee as well!” “So, I have to take a day off my work, and she has to take a day off working for me, to get registered?” “Oh yes, because they have to take the employee picture and then it has to go upstairs to audit.”

Now hold on I’m thinking! I am registering to pay the NIB money and they don’t trust me? I have the person’s passport and work permit but I still have to go out to Blue Hill Rd. Do they think I might bribe someone in order to register this person, to pay them money every week? Why

beginning” and thereafter, ain’t nuttin happenin’, resulting in us either sliding down the pinnacle due to laziness, or teetering precariously on the ledge due to ignorance. What makes it even more scary is the fact that many of us don’t even realise this sad state of affairs we are in!

In 2014, Creative Nassau obtained membership for the City of Nassau in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. This prestigious designation was obtained based on the amazing creativity enshrined in our culture and heritage with which we, as a people, have been endowed. We must respect the seriousness of this task and ensure that this legacy is properly protected and used for the benefit of the greater good. This country has countless historical treasures that many

of us either are not aware of, ignore, allow to crumble, or simply demolish.

I become upset when tourism officials send visitors to my art gallery under the pretext of it being a “historical site”, or a tourism representative calls by phone to ask us to give them valuable Bahamian fine art treasures two weeks before an event to take in their luggage to foreign shores, or a tourism tour guide sends persons to our “junkanoo museum” which has not existed for years!

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and this perpetual ignorance and laziness is seriously damaging our tourism product!

If tourism is supposed to be our lifeblood, we are in kidney failure! If tourism is the repository of programmes like Bahamahost to train persons to be

would I have to go to Blue Hill Rd? Now, brother Brent, maybe you can amend that legislation so that the employee, gaining a work permit by default, is also registered with National Insurance by default. And tell Mr Turnquest that they could save a lot of money by sending those employees at Fox Hill home, and closing that office.

Please ask Mr Turnquest to send someone to see me at 165 Eastern Rd. where he can take the photo of the permit holder. Alternately, he can access your immigration system to get the photo copy that is on her nice plastic immigration card and then he can deliver the NIB card to me at the same address.

I left the building, singing in my mind, the words of the Simon and Garfunkel hit song “My Little Town” ! and the very Poignant chorus - “Nothing but the Dead and Dying back in my little town.” X 2

BRUCE G. RAINE Nassau, January 22, 2018

We must fix the civil service EDITOR, The Tribune.

I WRITE, this letter with consternation after an exchange yesterday with an employee at the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation.

Firstly, (and this applies to ALL ministries), why do civil servants believe that using “Miss or Mrs…So and so” is the proper way to introduce themselves instead of using their first name? How can you contact them, especially those who have a common surname like Smith or Bethel, if you cannot distinguish them amongst the huge office of people!

Please, Department of Public Service, hold a seminar for civil servants, headed by properly qualified individuals, to teach proper etiquette and basic commonsense (although the commonsense part

might be pushing it)!

The next extremely important training exercise needed is to provide the correct knowledge and understanding of Bahamian Art, Culture and Heritage. Over the four plus decades that my late husband Jackson Burnside and I have been traversing this landscape attempting to unveil the rich treasures of our unique art, culture and heritage that have been lovingly passed down from the sweat and tears of our ancestors, we have experienced countless encounters with untrained and ill-equipped persons who have no clue what they are espousing to our visitors and the general public!

I continue to despair of the lack of replacements for the likes of Anatol Rodgers, Setella Cox, or Vernice Cooper who taught

our people the basic and essential lessons of life and living!

Having just celebrated another anniversary of Majority Rule, it is unfortunate that many of the benefits obtained during that struggle have been cast aside without the realisation for what it all signified.

We can only progress forward and onwards if we are anchored to a strong foundation. It seems as if, having arrived at a pinnacle of Majority Rule, we figured “we reach” and stopped striving to move even further, content to lazily rest on our laurels expecting forward movement to take place without expending any effort! This cannot happen – pure and simple!

Unless you have a firm foundation in place and get the basics right “in the first

stewards and ambassadors of our culture and heritage, we are in cardiac failure!

This sad state of affairs must be corrected immediately! It is time to get serious and train persons properly in what this country is all about and what we, as a people, have to offer.

Train, test and assess persons on their qualifications and abilities, call out those whose ignorance damages our product, and get rid of those who refuse to get it right! Stop using ill prepared persons to teach the essential lessons – use our own experts to tell the ‘true true’ story of who we are and what we have to offer because our present and our future, and that of our children, and children’s children depend on it!

PAMELA BURNSIDE Nassau,

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, January 23, 2018, PAGE 5

Crash pilot had no commercial licence from page one

“The licence that he has is for private,” Ms Miller said yesterday. “You know he flew a private airline, he wasn’t flying commercial, so he wanted to fly commercial also so I think it’s something else he needed in order to get certification for that because he couldn’t jump into that.”

The licence that he has I don’t think would’ve been sufficient for commercial so he was going back to school to get whatever he needed to do that.”

Nonetheless, Mr Clarke flew people throughout The Bahamas, typically from Andros to Nassau, Freeport or Exuma, Ms Miller said. Across the world, private licences are allowed for noncommercial purposes only, while commercial licences are needed for pilots to reap financial rewards.

According to the country’s Civil Aviation (Safety) Regulations, a Bahamian operator of an aircraft cannot fly for commercial purposes without having an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC). The process of obtaining such a certificate is rigorous and is not given if the head pilot does not meet certain requirements, including having a commercial licence certificate.

Sky Bahamas CEO and President Randy Butler has said at least 28 planes operate unlawful charters each day in the Bahamas, a longtime problem, he said, that has plagued the industry.

Passengers aboard the ill-fated plane included 10-year-old Destinique Wilson, her mother Desiree Russell, Margaret Adderley, Valentino Cardinal Knowles and Carter Campbell.

“He just was going back to school because he wanted to fly with Western Air,” Ms Miller said.

“Sometime maybe next month or so he was getting ready to go back to school, so he was getting prepared because he just bought some pilot shirts and stuff, he said he wanted to change up the uniform for when he came back, hoping he’ll be going into that uniform for the commercial flights. He never got to wear them, but I think in about five weeks he was coming back to go back to flight school.”

Ms Miller and her family are no strangers to tragedy. In September, they buried another brother, Rian “Manny” Emmanuel Miller, 36, who was left paralysed after a motorbike accident in 2014 and succumbed to complications from the paralysis last year.

Ms Miller said she was particularly wary of her older brother’s fondness for flying, frequently expressing her fears to him and her desire that he find another

career. Her brother grew up in Andros and obtained pilot certifications from various schools, she said, including Southeastern School of Aeronautics in Georgia, US and Pelican Flight Training school in Florida––all within the last decade and a half. Even before he started flight school he bought flying books and studied its material, she said.

“Every day he would walk in the house after he reach home from the airport and I would be like ‘I don’t like you flying,’” she said. “Just the fact that they up there, anything can happen. ‘I’d feel better to know you are at Stuart’s Cove, even though you on the sea, better to know you there than in the air because I don’t want to get a call tomorrow to know you in a crash or something’ and he was like ‘Shannie, my passion is flying, that is something I want to do for life.’ He never, ever had a real fear of flying. Every day I would be in a conversation with him about it. He said ‘if I have to die today or tomorrow in a plane, that’s how God would have me go, but I won’t stop flying just because you fear I will die in a plane crash, because if I die that way that’s how God would want it to be.’”

Ms Miller said she is not necessarily interested in the conclusion of the work investigators are doing on the crash, especially if it means finding out about her brother’s remains.

“Based on the islanders on the scene, a lot of people

saw when they brought parts and stuff up from water, and it wasn’t the whole bodies,” she said. “A lot of people saw when they were putting whatever they found in the body bags.

They weren’t whole bodies.

Everything was basically cut up. What we were told is they found legs, hands, torsos, heads. Up to this day, they can’t tell us if any parts were of my brother.”

“Everyone deals with this stuff differently,” she said.

“Me personally, I wouldn’t care if they say they couldn’t find anything from him. It’ll have me move on a little easy and better because at least I wouldn’t have to see a leg or torso or head of him because whatever remains, we still would have to deal with it in terms of cremation. That they don’t find them, I’d feel good in a way.”

Weeks before he died, Clarke attended a family reunion, an experience Ms Miller cited as her happiest memory of him. In a rare move, Clarke, who didn’t drink alcohol, consumed a Kalik radler, but only after putting the drink in a tea cup to disguise it. Despite his efforts, his eyes turned red, amusing his family who had come together to emphasise their unity outside the confines of a funeral. Clarke was a symbol of sobriety, Ms Miller said, and he had spent most of his life abstaining from partying, drinking, drugs and other excesses.

Even before his brother Rian died, Clarke played a key role taking care of his

MURDER VICTIM IDENTIFIED POLICE have identified one of three men who were killed this weekend in separate incidents.

The man was shot shortly before 3am Saturday, after he had just arrived at a home on Sumner Street, Nassau Village. Police said he was approached by a man armed with a firearm who shot him about the body before speeding away in a silver coloured Honda.

The victim, identified by police yesterday as Mychal

Lord, 28, of Adelaide Road, was subsequently taken to hospital and was listed in critical condition. However, Chief Superintendent Solomon Cash, officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit (CDU), said he died later Saturday morning.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call police at 919, 502-9991 or the Crime Stoppers hotline at 328-TIPS. • Police in Abaco uncovered a large marijuana field

yesterday and arrested three men.

The street value of the plants is $1.5m, police said.

Shortly after 1pm, officers acting on information went to an area off S C Bootle Highway in Marsh Harbour where they found a marijuana field with approximately 3,103 plants.

The plants ranged in height from three inches to four feet.

The police investigation continues.

BODY OF SECOND DROWNED MAN FOUND POLICE have recovered the body of a second man from Bimini who was reported missing last week after last being seen with another man sitting in a small boat.

The body of the first man was recovered in waters off Bimini on

WRECKAGE from the crash, above, and, right, pilot Darren Clarke.

January 18. He has been identified by a friend as 64-year-old William “Stinky” Stuart.

Yesterday, police said the body of the second man was recovered after 4pm Sunday, floating some 50ft off shore in an area near Bailey Town, Bimini.

Both men were reported missing and last seen sitting in a small boat anchored at the rear of a business on January 17.

It is suspected they drowned however police said an autopsy will be carried out to determine the exact cause of death.

four children, Ms Miller said. He never had children himself, Ms Miller said.

“My brother that passed previously, his kids, the day before the flight coming back from Andros, I spoke to him, he would make sure buy school stuff and stuff for lunch. He called and told me he’d bring some supplies on his way up.”

Ms Miller said Clarke was the key caretaker for the children.

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PAGE 6, Tuesday, January 23, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

THE toll booths on the bridge at Paradise Island.

Davis defends three-year deal from page one revealed that an agreement for a Bridge Authority employee specified no fixed termination date and no less than three years’ notice be given in the event of termination.

The clauses were added in an addendum to the executive’s contract on April 20, 2017, nearly three weeks before the last general election. The contract is worth nearly $100,000.

The Tribune did not identify the executive in question in its reporting, however a local tabloid identified the employee yesterday. “…Thank God the contract for the person who he exposed this morning is cast the way it is (or) otherwise they would be on the street today,” Mr Davis said yesterday.

“There is nothing wrong.

It all boils down to (being) stylistic more than principle,” Mr Davis added when he was asked whether there was anything untoward about the added stipulations. “Because I do something a particular way don’t make it wrong because you would not have done it that way.

“It is truly disturbing that the Minnis administration will continue to expose the personal business of public servants in the manner in which he has been doing, particularly those who were engaged under the Progressive Liberal Party’s watch,” the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP said earlier in his interview.

“He is doing no different. I have asked questions about some of the persons who were employed and employed for in excess of $100,000, which he said he

was putting an end to those contracts, but on the other hand he is hiring people. It’s the same thing.

“I decry the hypocritical posturing of the government in attempting to demonise and to insult the intelligence of persons engaged in the public sector and by ourselves.

“I don’t know what he is talking about by probing contracts. Contracts are contracts and thank God for contract the person who he exposed this morning had is cast the way it is (or) otherwise the poor lady would be on the street today.”

Meanwhile, Senator Fred Mitchell, PLP chairman, said the Bridge Authority executive was now exposed to security risks.

“Those of us who are PLPs would have come front and centre today when we opened the

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newspapers and found that yet again there was an assault on someone who was appointed under the Progressive Liberal Party and all their private business was put in the streets simply because some people have now become the FNM and the government and their view of governing is to attack their opponents instead of governing in the eight months,” Mr Mitchell said during a memorial yesterday at the PLP’s headquarters on Farrington Road. “That is what they’ve been doing, digging up into trash, stirring up old stories and exposing people to what I call security risks.”

He also said: “They put the salary in the newspapers and they accused the Progressive Liberal Party of putting what I am calling a poisoned pill, which is a clause that says if you want to break the contract you have to pay out the contract for a period of three years.

“And they say that something is wrong with this. It’s again part of their narrative that all we do is crooked

and all that we do is ignorant and greedy.”

Meanwhile, the prime minister has said he is “deeply disturbed and annoyed” by the practice carried out by the PLP. He hinted the government was seeking to cancel the contract, charging that anyone who feels the Minnis administration is wrong can “take us to court.”

“If any government is allowed to get away with something like this, where is the fairness in democracy? How is it acceptable to essentially contract someone to work for the government for life?

It’s like they tried to contract people for life,” Dr Minnis told The Tribune recently.

According to documents obtained by The Tribune, on April 20, 2017, the addendum was added and signed to supplement a contract of employment for the executive, which was dated January 7, 2013.

The addendum read: “…

Employer shall employ employee in the capacity set forth commencing January

7, 2013 and continuing with no fixed termination date, until either party shall give proper notice of termination of this employment agreement to the other.

“The notice shall be no less than three years’ notice.

“If the board wishes to terminate this agreement for any other reason outside the terms of the employee agreement, the employee shall be compensated in accordance with the terms of this contract along with any pecuniary benefits that the employee was entitled to.

“In the event any conflict arises between the provisions of this contract and any other document issued by the board providing for terms and conditions applicable to employees of the board, the provisions of this contract shall prevail,” the addendum continued.

This addition was supported by terms in the original contract on January 7, 2013, specifying that this agreement was to continue indefinitely until either party gives notice to the other.

2020 CENSUS CAMPAIGN BEGINS - WITH $5M PRICE

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Department of Statistics yesterday officially launched its multi-tiered 2020 Census publicity campaign.

The census data collection is set to start May 4, 2020.

Proposed as the country’s first electronic census and potentially the most expensive on record, officials from the Department of Statistics yesterday moved to dismiss fears surrounding the census and reassure the public that its participation was key to the process’ success.

Acting Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest, during a press conference at the department’s Madeira Street headquarters, challenged residents across the country to offer their full support and focus on the value of the process and its overall success.

Speaking to reporters following his general address at the launch, Mr Turnquest underscored the importance of the extended exercise, calling the effort both necessary to and essential for the growth and development of the country.

Despite not giving any financial details associated with the census and its completion, Mr Turnquest acknowledged that expenses could be in the range of $5m. However, he noted that the cost paled by comparison to the aid the data compiled could provide the government.

He told reporters: “In order for us to determine how to allocate resources efficiently, we

need to have this data available to us.”

Mr Turnquest added: “(The government makes) decisions everyday based upon the last census; based on what we believe is happening in the country.”

The East Grand Bahama MP said the data compiled will offer valuable insight into how demographics have shifted in recent years, allowing the government the best opportunity to service the demands of the public.

“Census data is very important in terms of determining how the country is moving in terms of demographic shifts, ageing of the population, what the income levels are among those demographics; understanding where the population is shifting in terms of locations, communities, so that you can use that information to determine where you want to place clinics, where you want to place schools; the road infrastructure necessary; the electrical and water, and telephone and cable utilities that need to go in.

“It just helps with proper urban planning so that you have a well-ordered infrastructural development and you don’t waste money putting infrastructure in where there is nobody going or the populations not shifting. Or, in fact, moving resources from some areas that maybe depleting in population and investing those dollars wisely; where the people are (going), where the leads are.”

Mr Turnquest said as minister of finance, he welcomes the chance to see how communities are changing.

“We want to know the

income levels, where the poverty line is and the areas of relief that we may be able to give in order to stimulate development, to stimulate families so that they can obtain the services that they need and again, shifting demographics to determine where we might be able to encourage commercial development.

“So, there is a lot of things we can get out of a census and again, to be able to use imperial data to make sound policy judgments,” he added.

Bahamians have, in the past, been very apprehensive about the details they give to officials.

Addressing the concerns residents may have, Census 2020 Chief Officer Kim Saunders insisted her office has adjusted the way it approached the exercise in the past, to “make respondents more comfortable and resolute.”

In an interview with The Tribune, Mrs Saunders said respondents deserve to know that the information that they give will be held in the “strictest of confidence,” a matter she said has caused issues in the past.

“When we go to people, the first thing they say is, ‘I don’t want my information in any and everyone’s hands.’ This year, we want to reassure them and remove that fear,” she said.

“We want our respondents to be comfortable and resolute that when they are giving their information.

We want them to know, this is only for statistical purposes. I repeat, only for statistical purposes,” Mrs Saunders added.

The nation’s last general census was conducted in 2010.

BA HA M IA N ID EN TI TY EE KE ND : AR TI ST EX PL OR ES

IN EX HI BI TI ON

d Businesses scramble e s s e r d y l i t ‘Scan over disability deadline ’ k c a t t a e t i v girls in THE TRIBUNE

W

Tuesday, January 23, 2018, PAGE 7

TEENAGER KILLED IN BOATING TRAGEDY

By RASHAD ROLLE r Tribune Staff Reporte rrolle@tribunemedia.net

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

A 16-YEAR-OLD boya r was killed yesterday afte to crane fell and pinned him a boat in Exuma. r Police said shortly afte was 11am, the young man a ting hois “assisting with from sailboat (Lady Sonia) the governwaters the to theat Disabilities Act was Town ment dock in George December 31,was 2017. e that cran when the from used snapped being “The public and all ched the truck it was atta pin- businesses and e persons and mal the to, hitting t, which him to the boa ningaffected have thebeen given became submerged in two years to become comwater”. the teenager ce said with Poli pliant theer provisions wat was rescued from the l clinic January 1, loca the of the act, from to n and take pronounced re he was whe 2016, to December 31, 2017. was dead. Another man local clinic the The implementation of such at examined fted to was later airli and measures require financial her furt for New Providence adjustments, in addition to ical treatment. med SEE PAGE THREE

ranging from public sen- commission has not been sitivity to many public appointed yet. So the probplaces failing to make lem is there is nobody to the necessary changes to push it.

NEARLY one month accommodate their needs.

“I haven’t been reapsince the deadline passed They said it has been pointed yet and that’s a big for all buildings to be made disappointing to find there concern of mine. We were easily accessible to persons remains a great deal of making big s,strides, nt but vice-preside Palaciou HAD ROLLE istian Chrkeep

By RAS with disabilities, the busi- places around the amas to the Bah of coununless we are there r orte Rep ff after une Sta Council (BCC), came ness community seems to try, particularly Trib .net nemedia nt rece ine@tribu the pushing it, RBP it’s Fgoing die rroll said in ato the ut abo ok ebo be scrambling to comply capital, that have notDEtaken Fac post on the Roy theal vine.”

FENDING on tips, “if ce Force’s Junkanoo safety Poli s with the law despite having the December 31, Bahama ly iate 2017,advice A statementyou from appropr the (RBPF) takes away nearly two years to do so. dress, itServices engineering and structural deadline seriously. that JunkanooMinistry of Social the chance of being ss Speaking to The Tribgoers way, “dreand arrangements.

“I hate to say it this Urban Development, ed or touch in grop to ly” ropriate propriate une yesterday, Peter but I bet you a vastapp an inap d “Given that backdrop, majorwhich has oversight of comid unwante “avo manner.” and ntion” Goudie, a former Persons ity of businesses, atte accused it is the commission’s conics there despite pliance issues, said Crit lican Ang groping, “victim police offor with Disabilities Commis- all of the advertising es sidered position that a that been requests an acon Jamhave Archde and blaming,” s, pictured, sion representative, said we’ve done and we’ve Palaciou rape g widespread extension is otin done extension of the promdeadline. “if y erda said yest law prompting the the vast majority of busi- advertising through culture, sed not preferable. However, the dresHowever, officials saidto you are cy agen ent will rcem ple enfo titute, peo nesses in the country have chamber’s newsletter like a pros there has been requests for E FIVE to this is not preferable PAGand SEE e.” titut pros a like treat you no in-depth of Father extensions which have been businesses, requests for extensions The statement T case-bySETa knowledge DORon responded I would like have been responded to on

By SANCHESKAto ‘I have confronted Staff Reporter Tribune of disability case basis.” to bet that a case-by-case basis. et sdorsett @tribunemedia.n laws or that people in places The statement continued: probably Speaking on this aspect, of THE Department they even like Harbour Bay “While notdeportall114 governmore than 50 Mr Goudie said there Immigration will and chargebuildings todayprivate exist.

Haitians or ment per cent of should be no excuse to and say ‘why are ht 14 people who were caug He further holi date, we are compliant r theto ove businesses in extend the deadline. amian Bah in d. raised con- you parking in the sincefortaki day weeken have noticed thats private ements statin this country “It’s been there a ngnota

By AVA TURNQUEST r The Royal Bahama office on May, most cerns that disabled (spot)?’ orte iously governRep businesses and ef of Chi cism don’t have two-year grace period. critiBut Tribunea ence Force prev nse Def inte its bly .net d nemedia it apprehendeoperators luments aturnquest@ tribu work in this and they’ll curse for emo announced ment building tracts clue there’s we do havecon the right at the s in per more than 100 migrant on Leader exceeding $100,000 N TIO regard could OSI s OPP cise have been making considexer a disabili- “Brave” moment give a business two separate .

Davisto year Philip Tuesday. to ensure admisthe be in limbo me out like I was Saturday and said the erable efforts He on d ties bill,” Mr a grace period if they come calle s y rant erda yest y Most of the mig ose the sion from Press Secretar as a new evil. So we have ernment to buildings aree accestians who wer Goudiegovsaid toexp us.

If they come to that us the access to many their were Hai y Newbold she finds difficulty with y/Tribune Staff es and provide justifi- Anthon government had but nam air a sloop nearby law. elch ard whe her found abo commission g going to ping in W. Care min hires we sible as required el t shop g inco Terr trac goin to: con Pho when he was I am sure are all erley s. for The Add a huge education . face on cati ve that IRIS challenges she Inagua on Saturday than $100,000 hired people abo exposed places, and told The Tribune about the ed has not been worth more be “The current challenges ch originat contacted understanding and el whi further say, vess d, shol thre gap on disabilities per year.

Tortue, Haiti, that earlier from Île de lathe ativedo appointed the the narr include ability of slammed s yesterday.Mr Davis ‘well when can you it?’ rant a “polithad a total of 87 mig administration condemnation was and nis-led We since the in this country.’

Min proprietors toalesmake the males, 12 fem “I have want to get things done.

72 ”. tant show “bla ical d calle for what he on board.

PAGE TEN three children -investments last group’s public want to sitSEE necessary in in its don’t confronted there hypocrisy” You SEE PAGE TEN term ended in the physical upgrade of people in places like Har- and fine people and be December. premises, in addition to the bour Bay and say ‘why are mean. We just want to get Mr Goudie, who rep- you parking in the disabled something done and make difficulty with older builddle han to city the ed a day out in resented the Bahamas (spot)?’ and they’ll curse people aware because it’s terrified as she anguishget means she has to avoid drink-ing structures challenged drink how she was going to SPECIAL REPORT ing. The reason: “If I Chamber of Commerce on me out like I was evil. So awful.” with spacing and otheris to safety on her own.

By KHRISNA there is no bathroom that n whe only was It the commission, said the we have a huge education wise to make the necessary RUSSELL The ministry noted that ly easily accessible.” safe ered gath I all f why ef staf the Deputy Chi She added: “That’s strides they made could be gap on disabilities in this some businesses don’t have accommodations. on realpers one The . ide, live r ’t outs orte don I t, Rep ed say I exis on doesn’t “The ised Tamara had not join “dead on the vine” with- country. commission on krussell@ tribunemedia.net the finances needed to lead ordinary pers think them and returned to LDEST CO E TH . have to stop and ly use ding out the push of an active behalf of the ministry the buil of out “And we’ve been trying make the upgrades, adding easi her can m ther they WHEN the fire alar is not her real name, whe restroom. But that will ara, S the enforceTam NT commission. facilitate ME nMO cou the very hard through newspa- that others have to consider sounded at one of the ent could not make it out on k thin to ething I have This follows a special per (and) TV. The best way the structural integrity of mentOF of20 the try’s busiest governm es her own because she is som always.”

17 actPAGEforNINEand on about facilities scores of employethe disabled.

SEE report in The Tribune last to get to businesses is the the buildings which house behalf of members of the exit elAND SEVEN whe SIX is ES who PAG y, frantically rushed to erle SEE Add Iris they disabled community.

We month, which explored the chamber, but I don’t think them. told The Tribune building. Behind them nd, bou r chai ara, left one colleague, Tam will continue to work with plight of three persons with people are really paying “The Persons with HOW The Tribune reported on the issue previously. all stakeholders to ensure disabilities as they carried attention and it’s difficult Disabilities (Equal Opporthe disabled are enabled out their daily lives.

“Unfortunately, the tunities), Act 2014 and appointed by the Cabinet in a statement last week.

“The commission rec- to obtain equal access and At the time, they com- term of the first Disabili- its provisions are largely under the Ministry of Social plained about facing ties Commission came due monitored by the Disabili- Services and Urban Devel- ognises that the date for opportunities to function widespread challenges in December and the new ties Commission, a board opment,” the ministry said enforcement with respect effectively in the society.”

‘Go out like a prostitute - what do you expect? ’

HAITIAN ILLEGALS - 114 TO FLY HOME

DAVIS DEMANDS ‘$100K’ NAMES

ARE WE GEARED UP FOR NEW DISABILIT Y L AW?

LIMIT ON TOMATO AND SWEET PEPPER IMPORTS

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources is restricting the importation of sweet peppers and table tomatoes into the country following a high output of the produce from Bahamian farms, the government announced yesterday.

According to a Bahamas Information Services (BIS) statement, Agriculture Director Gregory Rahming believes restricting such imports “will allow Bahamian surplus produce greater access to the retain market without the added competition of imported tomatoes and sweet peppers.”

In a taped interview sent

to the media, Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister Renward Wells said the quantity and quality of sweet peppers and tomatoes in the country is proof Bahamian farmers can meet demands for supplying Bahamians with food.

“It is such a wonderful time in our nation’s history,” Mr Wells said of the development, adding the price of such local produce will be better than that of foreign imports.

“The price point that is being offered for these two commodities is actually lower than what is being offered in the United States, substantially lower,” he said. “This goes a very long way to our efforts in this ministry to bring real security to the Bahamian people. The only thing we

need to have now is consistency throughout the year so we no longer at any point in time have to import these items.

“The next challenge,” he said, “is for farmers to be able to produce these products in the quantities and at the same high quality year round. This would allow the government to consider the possibility of eliminating foreign grown tomatoes and sweet peppers altogether as a part of the push toward greater food security.”

Mr Wells suggested the government is eying opportunities like this for other items, saying: “We’re looking at a whole slew of other vegetables; we’ll be seeing how we diversify the Bahamian economy and bring more money to the pockets of farmers in this country.”

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PAGE 8, Tuesday, January 23, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Pinder’s Point foam was from fire drill

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

WHITE foam which was dispersed during a fire drill conducted at the Buckeye plant in Grand Bahama last Thursday was blown into the Pinder’s Point residential community, a spokesperson for the company confirmed on Monday.

Greg LaRoda, a local representative for Buckeye, told The Tribune the company held a fire drill to test the readiness of its fire response team and strong winds blew the foam over the fence.

He said the foam is “harmless”.

“There is no need for persons to be concerned.

It is just unfortunate that it went over into the (residents’) yard,” he said.

Residents Vera Grant and Jason Darling told The Tribune last week that around 10.30am on Thursday, a significant amount of foam was blowing into the community and some of it into Mrs Grant’s yard, which she collected in a container.

She contacted Buckeye and reported the incident to the Grand

Bahama Environmental Association, which has been advocating for the relocation of Pinder’s Point residents due to alleged ongoing industrial pollution in the area for the past four decades.

Initially, when The Tribune contacted Buckeye last Thursday about the reported complaint, a representative denied the incident.

Mr LaRoda, however, said the company had received a call from Mrs Grant. “We told her it was a drill and she seemed okay,” he said.

He explained that fire drills are usually spontaneous and notice is not given because they are trying to assess the readiness of the team, and it is difficult to provide a warning about when a drill would take place.

Buckeye operates the BORCO oil storage terminal – the largest in the Caribbean region with a barrel capacity of more than 20 million.

Shuffel Hepburn, a member of GBEA, said the association has collected a sample taken by Mrs Grant and will analyse the residue to ensure that it is not harmful to residents.

FOAM residue in Pinder’s Point.

TURNQUEST DEFENDS AG - BUT ADMITS DEBATE OVER LEGAL PLANS COULD HAVE BEEN GREATER

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net ACTING Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest yesterday defended Attorney General Carl Bethel against criticism he has received for his presentation at the United Nations last week, insisting all the aspects presented overseas “were discussed here” initially.

Responding to questions

on whether he felt the criticism levelled at Mr Bethel in recent days was justified, Mr Turnquest insisted the country was generally aware of all the announcements made by the attorney general.

However, he acknowledged detractors were fair in their claims that local discourse could have been more extensive.

In Geneva, Switzerland, Mr Bethel committed the

country to major legislative benchmarks on the issue of marital rape and migrant rights as he defended the country’s performance on human rights obligations before the UN. He said a bill had been drafted that would effectively criminalise marital rape as “aggravated spousal sexual abuse,” adding regulations have also been drafted for the welfare of detainees at the Carmichael

Road Detention Centre (CRDC).

He also spoke of amendments to the Bahamas Nationality Act, and foreshadowed amendments to the Immigration Act, which appear to legislate the government’s new policy targeting persons who harbour or employ undocumented workers, revealing that changes will limit detention times for persons pending deportation and station a courtroom at the CRDC. While many of these matters were foreshadowed previously, Mr Bethel’s report to the UN provided far greater detail and strongly affirmed the government’s position.

Addressing the controversy yesterday, Mr Turnquest stated: “You would know that just in the

last couple of weeks we’ve had a big debate going on here about these issues and there has been some indications of the kinds of thought-processes that we are trying to put in these decisions and including people in the discussion.”

He continued: “So I think it will be unfair to say that this was an announcement made overseas. You can make the argument that we had not had the formal public town meeting kind of consultation on it, but we have had discussions in the media by questions and we have had private conversations with various stakeholders about the issues.

“And so, I am comfortable that we are moving in the right direction in terms of involving the public and as we get around to taking positions, I am sure that

there will be full consultation with the public.”

Mr Bethel last week challenged accusations that he did not inform the Bahamian people before unveiling government policy to the international caucus in Geneva.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Mr Bethel said in a press statement on Friday.

He continued: “It is therefore deeply distressing to see my words apparently deliberately distorted, contorted and twisted out of all recognition.

“I therefore urge all Bahamians to actually read the words in the report that I gave to the UN, rather than to be driven by the excesses and errors depicted in social media and, most of all, to avoid knee-jerk commentary.”

THE TRIBUNE

COB worker’s pay changed, jury told

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net SUPREME Court jurors heard yesterday how former College of the Bahamas employee Chimeka Gibbs’ salary deductions and consequent net pay fluctuated both monthly and yearly, from 2008 to 2015.

Reene Mayers, associate vice president of human resources at COB, said between those years, Gibbs’ net salary fluctuated between $2,200 and $2,800, going as high as over $3,000 in one instance in 2013.

This while having her salary affected by deductions from three banks from 2008 to April 2015, namely Scotiabank, Commonwealth Bank and First Caribbean, and four from that point on with the addition of FINCO in May of that year.

On the last occasion, Gibbs was said to have made a monthly net salary of $2,315 in March 2008.

Since then, both her net pay and salary deductions would decrease and/or increase.

She was previously confirmed as having an annual salary of $32,310 as a human resources assistant at COB by a job letter dated May 24, 2011.

According to Ms Mayers, Gibbs’ total net wages for March to December of 2008 was $21,342.09. For all of

2009, it was $26,7771.36.

That amount then rose in 2010 to $26,866.25 before dropping to $26,699.84 in 2011.

It increased by almost $1,000 in 2012 to $27,691.10, and then steadily increased over the next two years to $28,283.36 and $29,554.26 in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Gibbs is on trial before Justice Cheryl GrantThompson charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars between March 2008 and October 2015 while employed at COB. She is facing eight counts of stealing by reason of employment and 16 counts of falsification of accounts.

It is alleged Gibbs stole over $500,000 from COB by reason of her employment at the institution. It is also alleged she falsified numerous COB direct deposit files, the result of which purported to show she was entitled to over $200,000 in salary payments.

According to court documents, Gibbs served as both a senior clerk and a human resources assistant at the college. She was arraigned in June 2016. COB transitioned into a university later that year.

Roger Gomez Jr represents Gibbs while Al-Leecia Delancey and Antania Rolle-Taylor represent the Crown.

The trial continues.

TWO men and two juveniles were sentenced to one year at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services and the Simpson Penn Centre for Boys after admitting to either breaking into, stealing and/or dishonestly receiving merchandise from three private schools in New Providence.

Dwayne Nottage, 21, and 19-year-old Dameko Nottage of Marshall Road were both sentenced by Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans after pleading guilty to various charges stemming from the theft of hundreds of dollars of various merchandise from St Anne’s High School, Kingsway Academy and St Augustine’s College (SAC) earlier this month.

Two 16 year olds were each sentenced to a year at the Simpson Penn Centre for Boys after being charged with Dwayne and Dameko Nottage, or both in the case of one with shopbreaking and stealing. One of the minors was charged with three separate counts of shopbreaking and stealing concerning each school, while the other was charged with two counts each of shopbreaking and stealing concerning just SAC and Kingsway Academy.

Dwayne Nottage, before being sentenced, suggested to Magistrate Vogt-Evans that community service would be a more suitable punishment for his crimes as opposed to prison, submitting that an individual’s personality has the potential to change drastically upon being sent to prison.

“Jail ain’t the best option for me, I rather seek for help,” he told the magistrate, adding: “Jail is change people life. I ain’t think that’s the best option for me.”

However, Magistrate Vogt-Evans scolded the four, particularly Dwayne, stating that as he was the oldest of the bunch, he “ought to have led them differently”.

“You know better,” she scolded as she addressed

them all. “That behaviour is absolutely unacceptable. It will not be allowed.

“You cannot behave like that and not expect to be punished.”

Dameko Nottage and one of the 16 year olds, were each charged with two counts of shop breaking and stealing. It was alleged that between 9pm on January 7 and 7.30am on January 8, the two broke into and entered St Anne’s High School.

It was also alleged that around those same times on those same dates, being concerned together, the two stole one 32-inch JVC television, one 32-inch TCL television and one Panasonic boom box together valued at $544.98.

Dameko Nottage was also charged with dishonestly receiving one 32-inch JVC television worth $199.99 and one Panasonic boom box valued at $75 on January 19.

The two were also charged with breaking into and subsequently stealing from St Anne’s just days later. It was alleged that between 6pm on January 12 and 7.30am on January 13, they returned to St Anne’s, broke into the school and stole one 32-inch black Element television worth $199.99, the property of St Anne’s.

An individual named Charles Williams, 39, of Monastery Street, was charged with dishonestly receiving one 32-inch Element television worth $199.99, the property of St Anne’s. A warrant for his arrest was issued by the magistrate as he was not present during the arraignment.

Dameko Nottage pleaded not guilty to the shopbreaking and stealing charges, but pleaded guilty to receiving. The 16 year old pleaded guilty to all counts of shopbreaking and stealing.

Dwayne Nottage, Dameko Nottage, and the other 16 year old were charged with shopbreaking and stealing, this time in connection with SAC. It is alleged that the three, between 7pm on January 12 and 9.22am on January 13, being

VICTIM STABBED IN NIGHTCLUB PARKING LOT A MAN is in critical condition in hospital after he was stabbed during an argument at a nightclub parking lot Monday morning.

According to police, shortly before 3am Monday, two men were in a parking lot on East Bay Street when they were approached by a group of men.

An argument ensued and a short time later, the group of men attacked and stabbed one of the two men multiple times about the body.

The assailant fled the area.

Investigations ongoing.

are

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that FORB PAUL of Pinder’s Point, , Grand Bahama, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 16th day of January, 2018 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.

NOTICE

CHIMEKA Gibbs at a previous court appearance.

FOUR SENTENCED OVER BREAK-INS AT SCHOOLS

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

Tuesday, January 23, 2018, PAGE 9

concerned together, broke into and entered SAC, and subsequently stole one 42-inch black Visio television worth $620, one Cable Bahamas cable box worth $225 and one black Dell central processing unit (CPU) worth $800, the property of SAC. Dameko Nottage was further charged with dishonestly receiving one 42-inch television worth $620.

Dwayne Nottage and the 16-year-old pleaded guilty to both shopbreaking and stealing. Dameko Nottage pleaded not guilty to shopbreaking and stealing, but guilty to receiving. As a result, the Crown withdrew the charges of shopbreaking and stealing against him.

Dameko Nottage and both 16 year olds were further charged with shopbreaking and stealing, but this time in connection with Kingsway Academy.

It is alleged that between January 7 and January 8, being concerned together, the three broke into Kingsway Academy and stole three black speakers together valued at $50, the property of Daria Wilson.

Dameko Nottage was charged with dishonestly receiving the speakers.

The two 16 year olds pleaded guilty to shopbreaking and stealing.

Dameko Nottage pleaded not guilty to shopbreaking and stealing, but guilty to receiving.

Due to the various charges, to which they each pleaded guilty, Magistrate Vogt-Evans sentenced the two 16 year olds to the juvenile correction centre for one year, on condition that they continue their education while there.

Both Dwayne and Dameko were sentenced to prison for the various charges for which they pleaded guilty.

A trial date of February 21 was set for both Dameko Nottage and one of the 16 year olds, due to the former’s not guilty pleas to the multiple shopbreaking and stealing charges against him concerning St Anne’s and Kingsway, and the latter’s not guilty plea concerning Kingsway Academy.

The two were remanded in the interim.

NOTICE is hereby given that ANN MARIE CASSERLY JOSEPH of P.O. Box N10473, Nassau, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/ naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 23rd day of January, 2018 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that URLENE MARIE CHER-FRERE of Ferry Horse Lane, Sea Horse Village, Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for registration/naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 16th day of January, 2018 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.

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Deadline for submissions – January 24th, 2018 Only successful candidates will be contacted.

PAGE 10, Tuesday, January 23, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Frank Watson - from island boy to Deputy Prime Minister Face to Face

By FELICITY INGRAHAM

IT takes a brave little well-known for – sheep. four-year-old boy to get “Grandpa” had a sailback on a horse and ride boat called the Evening again after being flung off Train. Most families had of its back on to sharp Long a horse as means of transIsland rocks. Curiosity, portation by land and most mixed with the fearlessness settlements had a sailboat small children often have, as means of transportation led this little island boy to over the beautiful Bahatake on an animal ten times mian ocean. Every eight bigger than himself. He sur- weeks or so, the Evening vived, but he lives with that Train would sail from Gorrecognisable scar on his don’s filled with goods to forehead that tells the tale. sell at the market in Nassau.

Frank Watson has The boat returned with a approached his life with the few essentials such as rice, same vigour. He has had no lard, flour and sugar. When hesitation in taking on life’s a family made a kill, such as challenges and on the polit- the slaughtering of a goat, ical front, he has had the they shared with the entire staying power to remain family and then with neighrelevant and respected on bours and friends. all sides of the political divide.

Even now at the age of 77, the same sparkle he must have had in his eye when he attempted to surmount the horse is still evident. It’s not often that I interview a senior individual and see a childish light in the eyes – a sense of excitement and innocence.

It wasn’t easy to get him to speak. He readily admits talking about himself is his least favourite subject.

He is the first-born of William and Olga Watson and on March 24, 1940, when he came into the world, he entered a small, tightly-knit settlement called Gordon’s. It is the very last settlement at the southern tip of Long Island, sometimes referred to as “behind God’s back”.

There, William W Watson (his grandfather) and four sons – William (his father), EveryBruce, Edgar and Thomas one shared, made their lives. These and in those brothers and their wives days, they survived lived a most humble life- by bartering instead of style, but they all had great exchanging money. In this aspirations in the little way, everyone had what Frank. He represented the they needed to survive on future, and they wanted an island far flung from the him to take an unfamiliar city, and the people of this path in life that could lead island are still relatively to crossing new frontiers. self-sufficient to this day.

What they did not know “They may not have had was the same little boy much, but they were so who had the happy, and confidence to ‘What I did not that’s what life jump on that is all about,” horse would like was that he said. end up taking after all my “Grandpa the reins of work to build loved children government as around him Deputy Prime camaraderie in and children Minister of the Department, I loved him. the Common- saw people taking He was very wealth of The entertaining. sides. That made Bahamas.

He had a big He grew up me uncomfortable, house on the like so many because all my hill which we island boys thought was a did – fishing efforts to unite palace, and he and farming. us would go had a shop,” In those days, down the drain.’

Mr. Watson families were recalled. self-sufficient.

Even when They grew or caught almost his own father and uncles everything they needed. got married (Edgar married They grew corn, which was Euphemia, Bruce married milled into grits or flour. Matilda then Lucy, and As a boy, he remembers Tom married Lorraine), he sculling or poling the fish- says his grandfather was ing boat out to the “drop” “still very much in control where the fish were teem- of the boys”. ing. They also hunted for At the age of eight, he wild boars and birds, and left from the care of his raised some cows, but parents to attend Clarence mainly goat; and of course Town All Age School. He they reared the animal for lived with his aunt Louise which Long Island is so and returned to Gordon’s

FRANK Watson with Muhammed Ali, above, and, left, congratulating Normon Solomon while serving as Deputy PM at Wendy’s restaurant groundbreaking. taught by Sister Mary Benedict Pratt, who pointed his intelligence and wit from an early age.

on school breaks to help with the field and farm work. He also spent time in the settlement of Berys with his mother’s father, Jepther Major. His wife, Leila, like grandpa William’s wife, died in childbirth. This trend led to the current day practice of Family Island women relocating to Nassau from their third trimester until the birth of their child.

By the time he was 12 years-old, he was instructed by his parents to sit examinations for The Government High School in Nassau. He credits his uncle, noted educator the late NGM Major for inspiring so many students to pursue their goals by leaving the island to attend The Government High. To this day, Long Island produces many teachers and students from the island are still earning high marks on a national level due to the systems established by NGM Major. He was also

FRANK Watson pictured while serving as Customs Deputy Comptroller.

The day came when the little island boy would have to take on a new frontier.

He set out on the Evening Train with these instructions from his mother: “I taught you these things: I want u to be honest and fair.

I want you to respect others and remember that the one thing you have is your good name. It’s up to you to protect it. You should also take care of strangers because you don’t know what part of the world you might go and need someone too.”

When Mr Watson arrived in Nassau, he went to live in the five pound lot with his Aunt Amy and her daughter Leita whom he had never met before. He settled in and adjusted quite quickly. At The Government High, he flourished, not only academically, but he also played softball, football, and a little cricket.

“The first day of school I was like a fish out of water, but eventually I settled in and made friends with people like my cousin Basil Butler (son of Sir Milo Butler and Lady Caroline Butler nee Watson) and Vivian McPhee of Exuma.

It was a whole new experience but I adjusted quickly.”

He would walk to the school on Nassau Street, sometimes catching a ride by horse and buggy, until he eventually bought a bicycle.

He was able to do this by working on Saturdays with a merchant by the name of Roscoe Thompson who owned a men’s store and by serving as a delivery boy for The Nassau Guardian.

Upon completion of high school, he continued to work with Mr Thompson, who had taken him under his wing. He eventually secured a Government

job and started out as a clerk in the Colonial Secretary’s office before being transferred to the Bahamas Customs Department.

Here, Mr Watson flourished.

In 20 years, he moved up the ranks from a trainee officer to the post of Deputy Comptroller – a position he held for seven years. He was known for having united the department and establishing a camaraderie that gained him the respect of many.

“They were enjoyable years for me as we worked hard to build high morale and a sense of belonging,” he said.

It was during this time that he made his first trip out of country. He and his customs college Charles Grant planned their trip to New York City. They flew to Miami then took a bus all the way to the Big Apple. This adventure would be followed by many other trips, including a year he spent at the University of the West Indies becoming certified Public Administration, and trips to London and Finland where he earned diplomas related to customs operations and management.

Mr Watson supported the Progressive Liberal Party like so many Bahamian professionals did during the time of Independence, even offering donations to the party. Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield was a part of the party at the time, but when he left, Mr Watson’s allegiance went with him to the newly-formed Free PLP (later to become the Free National Movement). He felt Sir Cecil would have been a fairer leader for the country at the time than former Prime Minister, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling.

“I supported the PLP during my younger years - all of us did. But when the party took office, they seemed to be adopting many of the policies of the former governing party (United Bahamian Party) particularly in discriminating against persons they thought did not support them. This was dividing Bahamians.”

When the Customs Comptroller retired, the PLP appointed an individual from the Treasury Department to take over.

This impacted the morale of the department, he said, because a huge contingent was upset that he did not get the top job.

“What I did not like was that after all my work to build camaraderie in the Department, I saw people taking sides. That made me uncomfortable, because all my efforts to unite us would go down the drain.”

He resigned from Customs and was enticed by Sir Cecil to join him on the political front. With just three months left to the 1977 general elections, Mr Watson was sent to step up

against Paul Adderley in the Carmichael constituency. He lost that round but won in 1982 and held that seat for ten years before the Free National Movement ever won a general election. He received the support of his family and his wife, the late Joan Watson nee Wright of Aberdeen, Scotland and his two daughters, Sheila and Colene. His family and friends pitched in with campaigning and doing whatever they could to help him succeed on the political front.

The seat eventually changed to become the Adelaide constituency and he continued to hold that seat for an additional ten years, meaning he represented the people of the southwestern district of New Providence for four consecutive terms, or 20 years. He served in Cabinet and his trustworthiness, humility and commitment to country earned him the trust of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, whom he says it was a pleasure to serve with because they shared the same ideals.

The FNM council voted him in as deputy after Sir Orville Turnquest, who had served in that post, moved on to become Governor General.

Even after his retirement from mainstream politics, the FNM appointed Mr Watson chairman of the Airport Authority to oversee the construction of the Lynden Pindling International Airport.

Mr Watson credits his success to the principles instilled in him by his parents: “From my earliest days, I could remember that I had a kind of empathy for those who are less fortunate or those who needed help.

Mama used to say that my daddy would give people the shirt off his back and I think I got that from him.

I like people; I like to see them doing well and generally speaking, I am a person who considers the needs of others and always try to do what I can to assist.”

“Politics is very exciting; it is the art of the possible.

One has to be committed to serving your community; helping to grow the economy so that everyone is able to have a job; educating the population; and keeping the peace on the streets – it’s challenging. It’s not a 9 to 5 job, but a constant day and night one.”

Through it all, he credits his Long Island upbringing for his professional and political success. His father, he says, didn’t like beating children and had to be forced to do so, while his mother didn’t hesitate to “make you feel if you couldn’t hear. But together, he says his parents greatly influenced him to be the man he is today – one wellrespected and loved by Bahamians, and one who made a national and global impact.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, January 23, 2018, PAGE 11

‘This is the last ride’ said missing sailor in video

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net MORE than a week after his disappearance off the coast of Bimini, the family of Samuel Leroy Moss Jr, 23, is desperate for him to be found alive.

A Baha Mar lifeguard and avid sailor, Mr Moss flew from Nassau to Fort Lauderdale on January 13 to purchase a small fishing vessel, The Tribune was told. The last time Samminka Moss, 21, heard from her brother was January 14.

“He then drove the boat from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini and arrived in Bimini around 5pm,” Ms Moss told The Tribune. “He slept in Bimini by family members (that night). Sunday morning around 7.45am he set sail to head from Bimini to Fresh Creek, Andros, to meet some friends.

“The friends said Sammy never reach to Andros.

Sunday morning around 8.15am was the last time anyone has heard from my brother.”

She said the family immediately contacted the Royal

Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) and the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association (BASRA).

Ms Moss said the family has been in frequent contact with the RBDF since reporting her brother as missing.

“They have been very helpful.”

Ms Moss has previous experience working with the RBDF. In February 2017, they successfully rescued her brother after an incident off Grand Bahama.

Ms Moss said: “He flew from Nassau to Miami to pick up a boat last year. He got stranded on the waters between Miami and Freeport. He didn’t make it to Freeport.

“After I didn’t hear from him for a few hours, that’s when I contacted BASRA and the defence force along with a few others.”

Mr Moss was stranded on the waters for about three days before the RBDF rescued him, his sister said.

When asked about the similarities between last year’s incident and this current situation, Ms Moss said: “Last year he didn’t

carry any food or water, but this year he took food and water, sufficient to last him four or five days just in case he got stranded again or in case anything happens.”

Ms Moss said her family is praying to God for her brother’s safe return.

“My brother has always loved the water. Two things he loves (are) the water and helping people,” she said.

“He has been going in the boat, sailing, diving, conching, fishing, from he was about 13.

“He would go above and beyond to help someone. If it was someone else trapped on water, and he had his boat he was going to go in wind, hail, snow.

“He has always been a person to go all out for others, whether you are family, friends – you could be a random person. You would click to him just because he has a bubbly personality, and he knows how to get along with everyone.”

On January 14 at 7.54 am, Mr Moss recorded a Facebook live video as he sailed.

He can be heard saying, “This the last ride. Last leg, daddy going home.”

SAMUEL LEROY MOSS

TECHNOLOGY HUB FOR GRAND BAHAMA PITCHED ON TEXAS TRIP

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

IN remarks to technology industry leaders in Texas yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis pitched Grand Bahama as a technology hub prime for an influx of American business.

Grand Bahama, the industrial capital of the

country, has been plagued by years of stagnant economic growth, which the Minnis administration has pledged to reverse.

His meeting and remarks to the Austin Technology Council/Texas Association of Business were carried live on his Facebook page, an unusual move for such meetings but in keeping with the administration’s tendency to make Dr

Minnis’ activities accessible to Bahamians.

A couple of times during his speech, Dr Minnis highlighted the Commercial Enterprises Act, which controversially passed Parliament last year, as an example of a law through which prospective businesses could do business in the country.

“My government has embarked upon a major

mission to establish the Bahamas, particularly Grand Bahama island, as a world-renowned technology hub,” Dr Minnis said, highlighting last year’s Grand Bahama Technology Summit which hosted “some of the finest minds in technology locally and from international tech giants”.

“Grand Bahama is uniquely suited to become an internationally

recognised science, technology and innovation hub.

We invite you to consider Grand Bahama as you plan your next start up or the expansion of your international enterprise. Grand Bahama and the Bahamas possess modern and superior infrastructure, modern roads, constant and reliable electricity supply of NorthAmerican standards, fully digital telecommunications

and high quality high-speed internet.”

Dr Minnis’ delegation includes Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield, Grand Bahama State Minister Kwasi Thompson, non-resident Ambassador-designate for Central American States Cornelius Smith, senior policy advisor Joshua Sears, aide Kirk Bastian and social media aide/photographer Yontalay Bowe.

PAGE 12, Tuesday, January 23, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis tours the clean-up area on Saturday accompanied by (from left) Joshua Sears, senior policy advisor, Office of the Prime Minister; Travis Robinson, member of Parliament, Bain and Grants Town; Melanie McKenzie, director, Department of Environmental Health Services and Shanandon Cartwright, chairman, The Bahamas Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority.

Putting a new face on Over-the-Hill MORE than 13,000 cubic yards of debris were removed from the Bain and Grants Town community during the first two days of the government’s Over-the-Hill clean-up campaign.

The campaign began on Friday and ramped up its operation on Saturday.

Some of the work had to be completed on Sunday.

Officials from the Economic Development and Planning Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Department of Environmental Health Services and The Bahamas Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority – who combined their resources and assets to make the campaign happen – say the figure equates to

the size of six full-length football fields.

“So far everyone has done an excellent job in making phase one of this initiative a success,” Dr Nicola Virgill-Rolle, director of the Economic Development and Planning Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister said. “(I) want to thank everybody who (has) been out here working – DEHS, Beaches and Parks Authority, all of the workers from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) who have really been executing a tremendous work in executing the first phase of this clean-up.”

The bulk waste removal and management of the heavy equipment used

was done through the Department of Environmental Health Services while employees of The Bahamas Public Beaches and Public Parks Authority took care of the manual work.

Kemi Jones, project manager for the Overthe-Hill Community Development Partnership Initiative, said the focus of phase one of the cleanup focused on the areas north of Meadow Street, and north of Ross and Gibbs Corners. Officials will focus on the areas next weekend, going back to areas south of Meadow Street and Ross and Gibbs Corners, as far south as Wulff Road and Poinciana Drive the weekend

DEBRIS being piled onto a heavy duty truck for transport to the public dump as part of the Over-theHill clean-up and bulk waste removal campaign which got underway Friday, January 19 in the Bain and Grants Town community.

Photos: Derek Smith/BIS of January 26-28 during phase two.

“It’s a massive area, but we are working hard and doing our best to impact as many lives as possible and get it done correctly,” Mr Jones said. “One of the six

pillars of the Over-the- Hill Community Development Partnership Initiative talks about rejuvenation, so this clean-up effort is focusing specifically on getting the trash, bulk waste and derelict vehicles out of

In keeping with its commitment to human resource and leadership development and its digital transformation, Patrick Ward, Group President & CEO, is pleased to announce the following appointments within the Bahamas First Group.

APPOINTMENTS DEBORAH MCKINNEY

GROUP OPERATIONS & SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER

Bahamas First Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Deborah McKinney as its Group Operations & Special Projects Manager.

In this new role, Ms. McKinney will be responsible for the operations management within the Group and with key stakeholders, providing strategic advice on business operations, property management, data control and crisis management. This will also allow for the separation of data management and data governance, in a more controlled environment.

Ms. McKinney joined Bahamas First Group in 1995 as a Programmer and was eventually promoted to the IT Manager and most recently, held the expanded role of Group IT Manager and Data Controller. Under her leadership, the department evolved from a data processing unit to fully functioning information technology centre of expertise providing centralized support to the group’s local and overseas offices. The unit also played a pivotal role in establishing the company’s disaster recovery systems and business continuity plans.

She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and an MBA from the University of Miami. She has a strong background in project management, programming, application support and system administration.

She is an active member of the Church of the Holy Spirit and enjoys reading, traveling, bowling, golf and charity work.

JAMAAL DAVIS

GROUP MANAGER, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Bahamas First Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Jamaal Davis as its Group Manager, Information Technology

In his new role, Mr. Davis will be responsible for overseeing and managing the Information Technology department and projects, coordinating all project phases from development to installation and liaising between employees, clients and key stakeholders, with the continuous goal of providing a stable and sustainable IT environment.

Mr. Davis has a strong background in network infrastructure and project management, having worked as an IT professional for more than 20 years. He joined Bahamas First in 2007 as a Network Administrator. Over the last 10 years, he has worked in successive leadership roles including Project Manager for various IT related projects and most recently held the role of IT Infrastructure Architect in the Innovation Center. He is also a graduate of the company’s first Future Leaders Development Programme.

Mr. Davis holds a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology from the University of the Bahamas and various IT certifications including, Cisco Certified Network Professional and Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate. He is also a Certified International Project Manager.

He is a member of The Rotary Club of South East Nassau where he has served on various levels on the Board of Directors. He enjoys problem-solving and finding innovative ways to overcome perceived challenges in society and business. He is married and the proud father of two.

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the area and then once we have done that, in February residents will witness the launch of our painting programme where we are actually trying to put a new face on the entire community.”

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