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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2021
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Gov’t facing ‘ejection’ over $26m land claim By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Government is being threatened with “ejection” from the North Eleuthera Airport and other assets unless it pays almost $26m in compensation for their use over a six-decade period. Attorneys representing 3,000 “common” land owners, in a February 17, 2021, letter to the Prime Minister, warned their clients will initiate legal action over the Government’s alleged violation of their constitutional and property rights in taking their land without paying a single cent for it. In a move that threatens to disrupt the $65m North Eleuthera Airport
* Threat to disrupt $65m North Eleuthera airport * 3,000 commoners warn Gov’t ‘willful trespasser’ * Say left with no choice; ‘pleas fall on deaf ears’ expansion, the Harbour Island Commonage Committee wants reimbursement not only for land that the present facility has occupied since 1959, but also the 450-acre and 30-acre sections that were taken for wellfields and the district dump in the mid-1990s. Richette Percentie, of KLA Chambers, writing on behalf of the Committee and the 3,000 it represents, argued that in the circumstances the Government is “a willful trespasser” on their land and that her clients will seek its eviction via the courts unless their
demands are “speedily” resolved. Reiterating that the Committee and the commoners were “eager” to see the airport’s expansion “come to fruition” but aghast at how this is being done, Ms Percentie said her letter was “a final appeal” to the Government for it to alter course after all earlier pleas “went on deaf ears”. She told the Prime Minister: “As you are are aware, the Government agencies - the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Water & Sewerage Corporation and the Ministry of Works - have occupied various portions
of the commonage land for decades. “In particular, the Government has occupied land at the North Eleuthera Airport (150 acres) since 1959, and an additional 100 acres since 1986; land at the North Eleuthera Garbage Dumps (30 acres) since 1996, and the Water & Sewerage Corporation has occupied the water fields (450 acres) since 1994. “However, none of those agencies are registered commoners, which is in clear breach of the Commonage Act. Additionally, the Government has unlawfully allowed persons and
ALGERNON Cargill companies that are noncommoners to enter the airport to operate businesses at a profit. These are SEE PAGE B6
NIB chair: We’ll recover $10.8m • ‘Significant portion’ already paid back • Won’t enter any more MoU style deals • Blames Housing Ministry for project woe By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE National Insurance Board’s (NIB) chairman yesterday reassured social security beneficiaries it will recover the $10.8m Ministry of Housing loan that was the subject of a scathing auditor’s report. Troy Smith told Tribune Business
that the present NIB Board has made “a conscious decision” not to enter into any more Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) type arrangements such as the one that governed the controversial loan, adding that problems arose because oversight responsibility was shared with the Ministry of Housing and the Environment. SEE PAGE B4
DOWNTOWN CHIEF ‘NOT AS NEGATIVE’ AS CARNIVAL BOSS
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Downtown Nassau Partnership’s (DNP) cochair yesterday said he was “not as negative” as senior Carnival executives on the city’s prospects although he agreed “there’s room for improvement”. Charles Klonaris told Tribune Business he “does not totally agree” with Giora Israel, Carnival Group’s senior vice-president for port and destination development, who lamented the lack of new and exciting activities for passengers to do in
Nassau pre-COVID-19. Echoing Michael Maura, Nassau Cruise Port’s chief executive, the DNP chief said downtown Nassau and Bay Street stakeholders were “taking the long-term approach” to improving the city and its attractiveness to both locals and visitors. Suggesting that the $268m Prince George Wharf transformation was the first step towards sparking the area’s overhaul, Mr Klonaris said: “I don’t totally disagree with what he’s saying; there’s room for huge improvement downtown. “We’ve been hearing SEE PAGE B5
CARNIVAL: ANCHOR DAMAGE IS NOT US
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
CARNIVAL Cruise Line executives have told Tribune Business none of their ships were involved in causing damage to the seabed while at anchor off the Berry Islands. Domenico Rognoni, Carnival’s vice-president of compliance, environmental and occupational safety, said the cruise line had provided all necessary information to the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) and Port Department after concerns were raised that cruise ships moored in Bahamian waters amid the COVID-19 shutdown were damaging the environment via anchors dragging on the seabed. “We have provided all the information, and based on our assessment and the information we are hearing from our sources, this incident didn’t include our fleet,” he added. “We co-operated fully with the Bahamas Maritime Authority, provided all the information they requested, and are in regular contact with the port controller at at all times.... about our ships’ location and where they are sheltering in The Bahamas.” His comments came as Carnival said The Bahamas would SEE PAGE B5
$4.39 LEADING BANKER HITS OUT OVER VAT ‘MAZE’ * Bahamas ‘better served keeping it simple’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net The Government “created a maze” for the Bahamian private sector and consumers when it abandoned the low-rate, broad base VAT model, a prominent banker is arguing. Gowon Bowe, who headed the Chamber of Commerce’s Coalition for Responsible Taxation when VAT was first introduced, told Tribune Business he “remains critical” of the Minnis administration’s decision to hike the rate to 12 percent and introduce multiple exemptions. Arguing that “society would be better served by keeping it simple”, he added that one negative consequence from this move was that food stores were forced to raise the prices of non-exempt items to compensate for the VAT they are unable to recover on consumer sales. “I don’t think the Ministry of Finance has demonstrated to this date that having exemptions at a higher rate is more efficient and effective than the original system we had in place,” Mr Bowe, who is Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, told this newspaper. “There’s now Indian giving; we give you exemptions, but increase the rate to compensate for that. The study by Oxford Economics demonstrated it was fare more efficient SEE PAGE B4