TOURISM MINISTER CALLS MINNIS’ BAHAMASAIR COMMENTS ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’

By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM, Aviation and Investments Minister Chester Cooper said former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis was “irresponsible” when he told parliamentarians on Monday that millions of dollars were missing from Bahamasair.

Dr Minnis, during his contribution to debate on the 2022 Fiscal Strategy Report, alleged in Parliament Monday night that “millions of dollars” had disappeared from Bahamasair’s branch in Haiti, which he blamed on travel agents and baggage handlers there.

“Millions of dollars have disappeared from Bahamasair by travel agents in Haiti... and they have remained quiet,” Dr Minnis said. “Where has the money gone?

“Maybe, that is why you see Bahamasair suspend flights to Haiti. That’s a part of it.”

The leader of government business, Obie Wilchcombe, asked Dr Minnis to substantiate the claim or withdraw it. However, the Killarney MP declined to withdraw his comments.

Yesterday, Mr Cooper called the remarks irresponsible and said there was no missing money. He said some $500,000 was sitting in a bank account in Haiti and that officials were hoping to soon recover it.

“I am advised that the former Prime Minister Minnis made some assertions that there was money missing in Haiti. This comment was most irresponsible. There is no missing money. There is an ongoing reconciliation matter,” Mr Cooper said before going to a Cabinet meeting.

“The amount is in the range of $500,000. The former prime minister indicated that it was millions of dollars missing. If he knows where the millions are, we would be happy to recover it. Bahamasair has indicated that the amount in question was in the region of $500,000.”

“It was a reconciliation matter. The matter is sitting on an account in Haiti and they expect it will be fully recovered by the end of this week so perhaps the

(former) Prime Minister was looking for headlines on this point, but it’s a matter that’s being handled by the board and management of Bahamasair.”

In a statement issued last night, Bahamasair said Dr Minnis’ claim of millions of dollars being missing in Haiti was “not true”.

The statement said: “During the pandemic, Bahamasair suspended services into both Port-auPrince and Cape Haitien, Haiti. During this period, certain administrative and reconciliation issues occurred within the company that provided handling and representation services for Bahamasair in Haiti. As a result, funds related to sales within Haiti were deposited into the bank in Haiti once service resumed.”

Bahamasair said a total of around $530,000 in deposits were made by the company’s handling agent from ticket sales, which had been reconciled with no dispute, and that those funds would be received shortly in the course of business. There is also a reconciliation taking place, said Bahamasair, of a difference of “some $38,000 in bags and other fees, which the airline expects to have completed in short order”.

The company said: “The above constitute the complete reconciliation process for the airline’s affairs in Haiti relating to our handlers and we reiterate that this is purely an administrative matter.”

Cooper also addressed the suspension of Bahamasair’s weekly flights to recommended that they should move quickly to effect the increase in time for January 1, 2023.

In terms of the average salary of NIB employees, there has also been concern in view of the fund’s dire state.

An Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report indicated NIB employees received an average income of $64,000 annually.

When asked about the report, Mr Laroda said the average staff member’s salary is actually $40,000 at NIB.

“The executives of which there are 12, the average salary is around $90,000.”

“Then you have the managers below that. There’s 165 individuals in that category and the average salary is around $58,000. The 460 plus non-management staff is around $32,000.”

He added: “So for a staff complement of around just probably south of 650 staff members, it’s around $39,000. You could round off to say $40,000, the average staff member salary at the National Insurance Board.”

After COVID hit in 2020, NIB paid out more than $100m in unemployment benefits to support thousands of Bahamians who were laid off during the health crisis.

Once NIB’s 13 weeks of payments stopped, the government introduced its own COVID unemployment programme to provide further income support to jobless Bahamians.

More than $200m was spent on the unemployment benefit scheme by the government by the end of September 2021.

The number of benefits paid out over the years has left NIB reserves in a state of decline.

This is because payments have exceeded the incoming contributions since 2016, NIB had said earlier.

Munroe Response On Threats

from page one police will investigate,” Mr Munroe told The Tribune before yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

Mr Munroe said Davis is carrying on with his regular duties as usual despite the death threats made against him on Friday.

“The Prime Minister made it clear that he’s carrying on with business as usual. So I’m not quite sure what the former Prime Minister is talking about. The police will investigate all complaints of crime.”

Dr Minnis argued that every former Prime Minister at some point has been threatened. However, he said he has never seen others take on such intense security measures as has Mr Davis.

Port-au-Prince, saying the move was made for security reasons.

“You may recall that recently, the Foreign Affairs Ministry withdrew our personnel from Haiti,” Mr Cooper added.

“It stemmed from similar concerns and that is the sole reason why Bahamasair has suspended its flight to Haiti. You may or may not know that this a profitable route for Bahamasair but Bahamasair is determined by its personnel and its equipment is of great value and, therefore, they have determined that until things are settled, they will return.”

On Sunday, Tracy Cooper, Bahamasair’s chief executive officer, confirmed to Tribune Business that the national flag carrier had suspended its flights to Haiti’s capital since January 28.

He said the deteriorating security situation in Portau-Prince had upended the national flag carrier’s Haiti business model to the extent that flights to the northern coastal city of Cape Haitian instead are departing with 98 percent average load factors (passenger capacity).

The demand has forced Bahamasair to deploy one of its 138-seater jets to the route, marking a reversal from when Port-au-Prince would have been the prime destination and merited such capacity.

The airline suspended services to the Haitian capital after it was reported that five Bahamians from Bahamasair were unable to leave Port-au-Prince’s airport due to protests by police force members over gang-related killings of their comrades.

Mr Munroe wanted to know to which security measures Dr Minnis referred as “if he knows of different security measures he is free to say”.

Mr Munroe suggested if any extra measures have been taken it is the result of recent incidents, such as a demonstration led by Coalition of Independents leader Lincoln Bain outside Parliament on February 1.

“After the fiasco on Bay Street, the Commissioner of Police had a conversation with me. They were being very tolerant, as you, the press could see, people were permitted right up to the door of Parliament. They abused the privilege.”

He added: “And so now the police have to react to what is there. And that should be a sign to people. Simply because you are given a privilege, you should be careful not to abuse it.”

Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander told The Tribune yesterday that no arrest had been made yet in regard to the death threats made against the Prime Minister, however, he said the investigation is active.

Additionally, Mr Bain reportedly plans to have another demonstration at next week’s CARICOM meeting. When asked about the demonstration, Mr Munroe responded: “Bearing in mind that the police who will be charged with the security measures, as I say when you get extended a privilege, and you show that you can’t handle it, then the persons who are charged with controlling a circumstance will assume no doubt that you will react as you reacted on the last occasion and that will no doubt direct their response.”

On Friday, the Prime Minister’s office received two anonymous calls from someone who made death threats against Prime Minister Phillip Davis, prompting a full-blown investigation.

Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said during an emergency press briefing at the Prime Minister’s office that the calls were made shortly after noon on Friday, adding that officers are following significant leads.

He also said the Prime Minister was in “good spirits” and told him he was not afraid despite being threatened.

“Both calls came in, one right after the other about 15 minutes apart, threatening to kill the nation’s leader,” he added.

“We, as Bahamians, it shouldn’t happen. When you’re talking about threatening the nation’s leader and we as Bahamians, how we got to this level in threatening individuals, and you can go beyond the prime minister and individuals and we take this very seriously.

“We are now reviewing the threat level so we can put some additional security measures in place along with our law enforcement partner and the team here from the defence force and so we are on top of this.”

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