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ONE MAN DEAD AND ANOTHER HOSPITALISED IN SHOOTING

By SANCHESKA DORSETT Tribune Staff Reporter sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ONE man is dead and another man is fighting for his life after they were shot multiple times by two men in front of a home early Saturday morning.

The murder took place shortly after 9am in Chippingham and brought the country’s murder count to 52 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

SEE PAGE 11

Ingraham wants SIZZLING WITH ROAD FEVER answers on legality of $50m injection

By SANCHESKA DORSETT and NEIL HARTNELL FORMER Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has questioned under what “lawful authority” did the government use $50m of the “people’s money” to partially replenish the Bank of the Bahamas’ capital because of $100m worth of non-performing loans.

In a speech he had planned to deliver in Grand Bahama at a Free National Movement (FNM) rally but was unable to because of rain on Friday night, Mr Ingraham also asked the government to reveal if any government ministers

GOVT IN SECRET BPL POWER DEAL SEE BUSINESS or members of the governing party “are on the list of non-performing loans to the tune of tens of millions”.

Mr Ingraham said the public’s money should not be paying private loans and the only way to get the government to stop using the Public Treasury “like their own purse” is to vote them out.

SEE PAGE SIX

CHRISTIE: GET SWAYED BY PAPA, END UP WITH MINNIS

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

IF the Free National Movement wins the election, Dr Hubert Minnis would not be able to rely on former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham for leadership, Prime Minister Perry Christie emphasised in Crooked Island on Saturday.

He said: “Because nobody listening to him, (Dr Minnis) called Hubert (Ingraham)

out of retirement and, I don’t want you and I to forget this, Hubert and I squared off in 2012 and who won in 2012?

So all I’m telling you is this: whether it’s Hubert Ingraham, whether it’s the Right Honourable Hubert Ingraham, whether it’s ‘Papa’ Hubert whatever it is, that Hubert Ingraham, that papa, that right honourable is not going to be able to do the job for Hubert Minnis because SEE PAGE SIX

CARNIVALGOERS take to the road on Saturday during the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival Road Fever event. See page two for more on carnival - and see pages 17-19 in our second section for more photographs.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

OBSERVERS ‘SURPRISED’ BY CUT IN ADVANCED POLL SITES

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AN international group of election observers was surprised by the sudden decision of officials last week to reduce the num-

ber of polling sites for the advanced poll, the group’s leader suggesting this was the source of other problems that followed.

Mrs Hanna Tetteh, a former foreign minister from the Republic of Ghana, heads a Commonwealth

Get your election tally sheets in The Tribune on Wednesday

delegation of five other people who are observing this month’s election activities with observers from the United States of America and the Organisation of American States (OAS).

In an interview on Saturday, Mrs Tettah told The Tribune her team “had questions about last week’s advanced poll”.

“We were surprised that the polling stations had been reduced from two to one (in New Providence) at apparently very short notice and we think as a consequence a lot of other things took place that perhaps might not have if there

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE THREE

GAY MAN IS BEATEN UP DURING CARNIVAL

By SANCHESKA DORSETT Tribune Staff Reporter sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

AN American man who was allegedly attacked by a group of persons during a concert at Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival early Saturday morning is alleging that he was “targeted and beat up” because he is gay.

In an interview with The Tribune minutes after leaving Doctors Hospital where he was treated for a laceration to his head, 24-yearold Adrian Brown, who was born in Jamaica but lives in the United States, said he SEE PAGE SIX

PAGE 2, Monday, May 8, 2017

VISAGE Band on stage at carnival.

THE TRIBUNE

SUGAR performing during the Music Masters contest.

BERES Hammond during his show at carnival.

See page 14 for more pictures.

BUNJI Garlin performing at carnival.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

CARNIVAL SHOW WAS ‘BIGGER AND BETTER’ BAHAMAS Junkanoo Carnival concluded its third year with a “bigger and better show,” with event organisers claiming the festival continues to be “an economic stimulus for the cultural sector and source of empowerment” for small businesses.

The three-night festival in Nassau attracted an estimated 28,000 patrons, a 12 per cent increase over last year, with Saturday’s event drawing the largest crowd

of 13,000 people, according to a press release.

This comes after the event’s kick off in Grand Bahama last month saw a dismal turnout.

“Staging the event with an all Bahamian team, Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival out performed itself this year with a spectacular show of music, culture and vibes,” noted Bahamas National Festival Commission Chairman Paul Major in the press release.

“I could not be more proud of the show we put on. Our production team promised to amp it up every night, and they delivered. I can confidently say we are well on our way towards fulfilling the mandate handed down to us by the prime minister back in October 2013. His vision has once again proven to be sound,” Mr Major said.

He added: “Last year we started the move towards

privatisation aggressively with Road Fever. And with the Road Fever Association taking responsibility for more and more aspects of the event, this year the event continued to grow.

This year we continued to push the privatisation objective of the commission by working with a private promoter.”

The government said this year it would cut back on its subsidy for the controversial event.

For the inaugural festival in 2015, the government spent $11.3m, going over its initial budget of $9m, with the total cost of the first carnival $12.9m, with the rest covered by sponsors.

Last year, the total cost was $9.8m with a government subsidy of $8.1m.

In February, Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis said the Christie administration had budgeted $5m for Junkanoo Carnival.

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Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 3

Commissioner change a ‘pretense of accountability’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net FREE National Movement Chairman Sidney Collie accused Prime Minister Perry Christie of pretending to “exhibit accountability” by appointing Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Charles Albury a day after Sherlyn Hall’s contract expired.

He questioned why Mr Christie would make staffing changes to the Parliamentary Registration Department days before the next general election, instead of providing the vital government department with adequate resources a long time ago.

The government announced on Friday – five days before the general election – that Mr Albury would serve as acting parliamentary commissioner until the post is substantively filled.

Mr Hall’s troubled tenure as parliamentary commissioner culminated in Wednesday’s chaotic advanced poll for the general election, which saw many voters wait for hours in long lines and, in some cases, not able to vote because their names were not on the register.

Mr Hall’s contract with the government expired on Thursday, but it had been unclear how the Christie administration would proceed with the post with the general election just days away.

A Cabinet press release on his replacement on Friday evening noted: “The Cabinet Office advises that with effect from May 6, 2017, Mr Charles Albury will serve as acting parliamentary commissioner until the post is substantively filled.

“Mr Albury has served with distinction in the public service in various

ministries for more than 30 years. His present substantive post is permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism. The government looks forward to drawing on his extensive experience in the public service and in particular his previous distinguished service in the Parliamentary Registration Department.”

In his statement, Mr Collie said the nation’s leader was exhibiting “pretend acts of accountability”.

Mr Collie added: “Prime Minister Christie’s actions serve to shine a disturbing spotlight on his continued indifference to holding his Cabinet members accountable for their brazen, and blatant abuse of power. After this government completely fumbled Wednesday’s advanced poll, the embattled prime minister claimed an investigation would be opened immediately, saying ‘an explanation, obviously is needed.’

“Where was the prime minister’s attention to responsibility for the last five years, when the Parliamentary Registration Office obviously lacked adequate resources? After failures in every election during his term, why didn’t he make staffing changes until five days before this year’s general election? It is clear that Hall’s firing is simply smoke-and-mirrors — a PLP ploy to convince the public that they act accountably although their laundrylist of failures prove otherwise.”

Mr Collie suggested that while Mr Christie appeared to take action against Mr Hall, he has not disciplined Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald who admitted to attempting to solicit lucrative contracts from Baha Mar for his family’s businesses.

Mr Collie said this breached Cabinet’s code of conduct for ministers.

CHARLES ALBURY, the new Acting Parliamentary Commissioner.

“Rather than heeding the Isaacs Gym and voting did public’s demands, or even not begin until more than looking into the matter, he an hour after the scheduled simply calls the proven al- 8am start.

And although it was adlegations ‘fake news’ and at a rally he even praised vertised that both the gymnasium and the Thomas A Fitzgerald.”

Mr Collie ended his Robinson National Stadium statement saying: “This would be used as polling government finds new ways sites, voting only took place to insult every Bahamian at the gym.

Mr Hall deflected most of that believes in accountability and transparency. the criticisms of his perforOnly when the people have mance when questioned by their say on May 10, will the the press on Thursday and PLP’s disastrous rule come blamed the chaos on Carl Smith, the permanent Secto an end.”

At the advanced poll on retary in the Ministry of NaWednesday, ballot boxes tional Security and the rearrived late at the Kendal turning officer for the poll.

OBSERVERS ‘SURPRISED’ BY CUT IN ADVANCED POLL SITES from page one had been adequate information,” she said.

“But we would prefer not to comment on the specifics right now because all of that will be a part of the report we will prepare at the end of the election process. We do not think it is appropriate at this stage to say anything that sort of preempts or creates some unnecessary misperception before the actual voting date on the 10th of May.” Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said last week that The Bahamas had been “embarrassed” in the presence of the international community by the advanced poll, a likely reference to the presence of international observers in the country.

On Friday, the government announced the end of Sherlyn Hall’s troubled tenure as parliamentary commissioner, with Ministry of Tourism’s Permanent Secretary Charles Albury chosen to replace him as acting parliamentary commissioner just days before the election.

Mr Hall said his threeyear contract expired last Thursday and he had not sought an extension.

He also blamed the decision to reduce the number of polling stations from two to one on Carl Smith, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security and the returning officer for that poll.

Mr Smith could not be reached for comment up

to press time yesterday and it is unclear if he will face any consequences for the role he may have played in Wednesday’s debacle.

Some Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) insiders pushed the narrative over the weekend that he was allegedly politically motivated to reduce the polling sites, with PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts saying Mr Smith was appointed by Mr Ingraham.

It had been advertised that the advanced poll would take place at two locations: the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium and the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

People were surprised to learn Wednesday that the poll was only being conducted at the former site.

People waited in long lines for hours to vote, with some giving up on the process.

The ballot boxes also arrived at the site late and the polls did not open until 9.20am, even though they were supposed to open at 8am. As a result, voting was extended until 7.20pm.

Meanwhile, Mrs Tettah said the reception her team has had from stakeholders so far has been encouraging.

“All the meetings we have requested, we have been able to meet the parties involved,” she said.

“We’ve had opportunities to discuss the processes towards the election with them. They have been very frank in their responses and I think that was very helpful.”

On Wednesday, observ-

ers will observe the election from some polling sites.

“We’ve decided we will observe elections in the constituencies where the contest is perhaps, for lack of a better word, controversial or competitive in order to be able to have a sense of how the election contest is observed within those spaces,” Mrs Tettah said.

In a press statement, the observers said they will consider all factors that would impact the credibility of this month’s election and assess whether it has been conducted according to standards of democracy.

“We will consider, among other things, the general preparedness of the country’s electoral systems

and processes––including whether there is a level playing field that allows all political parties and all candidates to take their campaigns to the Bahamian people, whether the voter register was compiled in such a way that all eligible voters who chose to register the vote had the ability to do so, and whether sufficiently robust mechanisms exist to ensure the integrity of the register. Additionally, we will consider whether the state apparatus and public media impartial, whether freedom of expression is provided for, whether voters are free to express their will and whether the results process is transparent and timely.”

Asked if the dysfunction was an attempt at sabotage, Mr Hall did not dismiss the idea.

Throughout Friday, some PLP insiders pushed the idea that Mr Smith was to blame for the chaos, saying he was politically motivated.

Mr Smith could not be reached for comment and it is unclear if he will face any consequences for the role he may have played in Wednesday’s debacle.

The advanced poll was not the first time Mr Hall had become a magnet for criticism, however.

After the 2016 referendum on gender equality, he was criticised for overseeing a confusing process that resulted in the referendum results not being disclosed until the day after the voting had taken place, instead of that night.

During the lead-up to the election, the Parliamentary Registration Department had also faced criticism for turning away people who workers said failed to adhere to their prescribed dress codes. And errors and duplications in the voter register were also regularly highlighted.

PAGE 4, Monday, May 8, 2017

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Bahamians can’t afford short memories in this election “THE short memories of the American voter is what keeps our politicians in office,” quipped American humorist and actor, Will Rogers.

The same can be said of Bahamian voters and their politicians. In years past a bottle of rum and a four shilling note would blank a memory and win a vote.

Today voters demand more for their votes, but the results are the same. They forget that these inducements will not carry them over five years under a government that has failed them in many ways, including creating employment.

Two days before police officers were to cast their ballots in last week’s advanced poll, the Cabinet office announced that government had promoted 851 of them to various ranks. Promotions, long overdue, would now take immediate effect from the first of the year.

And at a PLP rally just a week before that, Prime Minister Christie in the euphoria of the moment, announced that after four years of argument that went as far as the Appeals Court, his government had buckled. It had decided to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling, upheld by the Court of Appeal, and police officers and men owed overtime for the years 2013 and 2014 would be paid. Their first payment would be issued on May 29 – 19 days after Wednesday’s general election. Was the timing of the announcement just a coincidence, or was it a deliberate inducement before they were to vote?

Coming so close to the general election, Bahamians saw it as an inducement.

We hope police officers accepted it for what it was and voted their conscience.

Keith Bell, State Minister for National Security, who not too long ago wore the uniform of a Royal Bahamas Police Force officer, saw nothing wrong with the timing of the promotions. In his view, there is neither a right nor a wrong time for promotions. “The officers are well deserving. It is what it is,” he said. We agree that the officers are deserving and, as such, they should have had their promotions last year. But, as Mr Bell said, “it is what it is.” For many Bahamians it has all the earmarks of an inducement before an election.

On the other hand, Marvin Dames, who, also, until fairly recently was a deputy commissioner of police in the Force, but is now the FNM’s candidate for Mount Moriah, saw the promotions — although well deserved — as “a sham”.

“Why do you have to promote around election time?” he asked. “Mind you it is good and the officers could do with a few

more dollars in their pockets, but even they can see this is a sham.”

In May, 2012, Mr Christie, then in opposition, would have agreed with Mr Dames. In fact, Mr Christie had such strong views on the matter that he pledged that if his party won the 2012 election, he would introduce legislation to outlaw “that sort of thing” when an election period starts. “It is just open bribery,” he said at the time.

“We just have to start moving our country forward and have our democracy respected,” he declared.

At the time – 2012– Mr Christie, then in opposition, was accusing the Ingraham government of attempting to bribe voters with jobs and contracts.

“I have been very dissatisfied with the extent to which the governing party has been able to use the Public Treasury,” he said. “The fact that we were hearing that hundreds of people were being employed, there is no way of explaining that. That is an inducement of the grossest kind and an abuse of the people concerned to be giving out contracts in the middle of a campaign.”

He said he proposed “to announce before we go to the general vote that the PLP will move legislation to outlaw that when an election period starts you just cannot do that sort of thing; it is just open bribery,” he declared. In his words there was no doubt about it. It was bribery, plain and simple.

Mr Christie and his PLP won the 2012 election and here we are five years later with rewards being given just a few days before the elections. Obviously, Mr Christie had forgotten his pledge to the people five years ago that it would never happen again.

However in 2007, the FNM, led by Mr Hubert Ingraham, criticised the Christie government (2002-2007) for offering contracts too close to the 2007 election. Mr Ingraham vowed that should the FNM win that election his government would stop and review all of those last minute contracts. True to its word, the contracts were reviewed. Some were amended, others were cancelled. The Baha Mar heads of agreement was one of the contracts renegotiated and amended.

This is one of the many differences between these two governments now offering to serve the Bahamian people for another five years.

On Wednesday, Bahamians must decide whether they want a government that keeps its word, or one that often suffers memory loss when it comes to promises.

Loretta in deep water EDITOR, The Tribune, LORETTA Butler-Turner steps into very deep water when she compares her political career and that of Hubert Alexander Ingraham.

Her argument could be considered if she had a context for making the statements she made about Mr Ingraham.

It is true that she is an Independent and he was an Independent. It is true that he was elected and became leader of a political party and Prime Minister. However, she is yet to be elected as an independent candidate and she would like to be Prime Minister; but it is here that the comparison falters.

Mr Ingraham, along with the present Prime Minister, was fired by Prime Minister Pindling for a stand they took. Mrs Butler-Turner chose to fire herself and then took a couple of stands and now she is an independent candidate who leads an opposition group that is somewhat non-existent.

A couple of years ago, I spoke with Mrs ButlerTurner at the conclusion of the funeral service of the late Edmund Moxey. I had noticed some stirrings and positions she was putting

forward and I asked her if she had given adequate consideration to what she was doing. There was not much of an answer, but I asked her to exercise some patience as she moved forward in her political career; my advice was not heeded.

Upon reflection, it seems that too many of the younger party members in the Free National Movement have aspirations for leadership, but lack the patience required to see the process through.

Where would Branville McCartney, Loretta ButlerTurner, Darron Cash, Dion Foulkes and many other talented persons be right now if they could have exercised patience? I remember as a youngster, hanging out at some of the cookouts that the Progressive Liberal Party held on the Southern Recreation Grounds and seeing Lynden Oscar Pindling helping with the clean up afterwards. Those memories always caused me to see him in another light, despite what I felt about how his politics turned out and even then he never gave you the idea that he had a sense of entitlement. Perhaps it is this issue that continues to be the Achilles Heel, for those who have been born into privi-

lege in our nation.

I appreciate the fact that Mr Ingraham has held his peace so long, but I knew it was not long before he went to his “rock pile”; we could say that he is really “rockin”. He has been needled and cajoled so long by his old party that what we are seeing is inevitable in a way. The fact remains that he may be one of the few voices that Bahamians trust, whether they like him or not, and that dynamic is so crucial that some persons would seek to sideline his opinion. To his credit he has the moral currency to speak to this nation, and no one has ever accused him of lying - and there are not many who have been in politics as long as he has who can make that claim.

The Bahamian people are about to inform us as to what their desires are going forward, but some are bothered that we are being instructed to listen to our consciences. This is a sign of disrespect that will not be soon forgotten after May 10.

EDWARD HUTCHESON Aurora, Ohio, May 7, 2017.

The story of the BTC sale EDITOR, The Tribune PARLIAMENT has been dissolved, the parliamentary committee established to investigate the sale of BTC (an issue deemed by some to be of national importance) never reported.

I’m not sure they ever met. I had hoped they would. I had hoped that other BTC sale, the one that came ever so close to being consummated in early May, 2007, would have been part and parcel of the discourse.

Much negative, sometimes insidious commentary has been spoken and written about the sale by the government of The Bahamas) of 51 per cent of BTC shares to Cable and Wireless. The possibility of a degree of improbity has been suggested.

A myriad explanations, mostly insular, myopic, narrow-minded and nonsensical have been presented as to why the sale was less than desirable. While I accept the less than acceptable explanations coming from those who know no better (those not intimately familiar with the considerations leading up to the sale) I unapologetically harbour an almost putrid repugnance for those knowledgeable about the pre-sale considerations, especially those closely aligned with the almost consummated sale to Bluewater, who nevertheless malign and excoriate others with mendacious, ungenerous commentary.

A little history might serve to begin to put the issue in perspective. An initial attempt to sell a 49 per cent stake in BTC was launched in late 2002. Bids were received and evaluated but deemed to be unworthy. The attempted sale was aborted in late 2003.

Bahama Tel and Blue Tel come to mind as two of the firms with whom earnest but unsuccessful negotiations initially took place.

A further attempt by the government to sell a stake in BTC was launched in 2005, following presentation of a presumably unsolicited proposal from Bluewater, an entity that seemingly came into existence not long before submitting the proposal and seemingly disappeared from existence not long after circumstances thwarted their purchase bid.

Sometime during the foregoing timeframe, the entire BTC enterprise was

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net independently, professionally valued at approximately $500m. Sale of about 50 per cent of the enterprise could therefore reasonably be expected to fetch about $250m, the sale price potentially being significantly affected by how long a period BTC would be allowed to continue enjoying its cellular monopoly (each additional year of monopoly cellular service potentially sweetening the sale price by about $35m).

The government seemingly commenced earnest discussions to sell a 49 per cent BTC interest and cede management and board control to Bluewater following receipt of an indicative offer, said to be between $200m and $225m. Further, the indicative offer is said to have embodied an option for Bluewater to acquire an additional two per cent of BTC within a year following the initial purchase of the 49 per cent interest, thereby increasing its shareholding to a majority position of 51 per cent. Perhaps the foregoing is where the notion that 49 per cent equals 51 per cent might have initially arisen.

Moreover, the Bluewater offer was seemingly structured based on a payment plan, a portion of the payment not becoming due until some years after the sale would have been consummated and Bluewater given board and management control of BTC. Presumably the May 2, 2007, happenings scuttled the anticipated arrangement. It is said some white men were camped out on the steps of the Cabinet building for an extended period on that date desperately trying to have a signature penned to the BTC sale agreement by the government. Euphoric anticipation seemingly quickly morphed to a labile dysphoria.

It may well be argued that BTC was sold for about $70m less than it might have been. The reason for the Treasury potentially being denied the incremental sum will shortly become evident.

I noted earlier that liberalisation of the cellular market was a most important consideration affecting sale price, each incremental year of cellular monopoly potentially adding $35m to the sale price the government

might receive for BTC. For reasons not made clear, introduction of cellular competition proceeded at a quite torpid pace. BTC therefore enjoyed a competition-free cellular environment for about two years longer than contemplated at the time of the sale. Had the incremental two years of cellular exclusivity been part and parcel of the sales agreement, the government would have received about $70m more from the sale.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the value of BTC has increased tremendously in the seven years since the sale to Cable & Wireless.

Upon a cursory analysis, government’s 49 per cent (or is it 51 per cent?) stake in BTC is now worth more than the 100 per cent interest held prior to the sale. I also understand government has received more dividend distributions from its 49 per cent (or 51 per cent) stake than it had historically received from its 100 per cent stake. Cable and Wireless has also sold its interest at a premium. This leads to a reasoned conclusion that the sale has been decidedly to the benefit of both vendor and purchaser.

Another issue regarding liberalisation of cellular service is worthy of mention and possibly deserving of fulsome, critical enquiry.

Why is it the government, on one hand, finds it desirable to with much alacrity but privily (some might say in the shadows) make shares in the newly-minted cellular company available to a handful of chosen individuals, while ordinary Bahamians continue to be denied access to the nine per cent of BTC shares that were to be made available to them via an (in the sunshine) Initial Public Offering?

MICHAEL R MOSS MAY 5 2017

Poor excuse EDITOR, The Tribune Re: Hall blames others for election chaos (The Tribune, May 5).

When considering competence, especially in government, we are reminded that education is seldom a good substitute for common sense.

KEN W KNOWLES MD Nassau May 7, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 5

Butler-Turner brands Ingraham as ‘duplicitous’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net LORETTA ButlerTurner, who served in the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, turned on him on Friday, calling him “duplicitous” and “untruthful” for statements he made this week about the decision of her and six other members of the Free National Movement’s parliamentary caucus to remove Dr Hubert Minnis as leader of the Official Opposition.

It was among the most stinging rebukes a recent, high-profile FNM member has made of Mr Ingraham, as she also accused him of abandoning the party after the 2012 general election defeat and having repeatedly backed bad candidates. She pointed to Greg Gomez, the party’s candidate in the North Abaco by-election, as an example.

Her comments came on Guardian Radio on Friday.

Mrs Butler-Turner, the incumbent MP for Long Island, is running an independent candidate this election.

“I find it reprehensible that the former prime minister would come out at this stage of the game to try and make himself relevant,” she said. “Additionally, this is the very same man who said to me that I was the one who kept the FNM alive over these past five years.

“So what has given him a change of heart at this late stage? Does he fear the fact that the FNM is losing ground in Long Island? I just find it very questionable. Tell Mr Ingraham that his own leader that he is following now said his era is over. What does he say about that and why are they

LORETTA BUTLER-TURNER, independent candidate for Long Island, pictured during advanced polling.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff pulling him out into this and the Bahamian people cause he left the race. I’m propriate”. they couldn’t settle it in the need to understand that Mr telling you that my fight “A political party deter- party, they could take their election at this time?

“Mr Ingraham is being Ingraham is the one that has always been against mines its leader, not the ‘georgie bundle’ and leave,” duplicitous and untruth- abandoned the FNM on the incompetent PLP. That members of the House,” he Mr Ingraham said. ful in suggesting that what the night of the last elec- has not changed. What has said.

“The FNM is the Official “The members of the Opposition of the Bahamas the majority of elected tion, left us to fend for our- changed in the past few members did is wrong. selves. He not only did that, weeks is the FNM right now House can constitutionally and the FNM chose Minnis We had every right within he brought in an obscure really, really doesn’t have a select a leader, but if you as its leader whether they are a member of a party, like it or not. That was a the parameters of the law candidate and we lost yet strong message.”

During an interview on you ought to be bound by wrong decision they made.” and if it as against the law another seat because of his Our TV’s “On the Record” what the party decided, and then someone should have bad choices.

Mr Ingraham said he was “Mr Ingraham right now on Thursday night, Mr In- the party decided that Min- surprised to learn of the thrown the books at the seven MPs that determined is hitting zero per cent. He graham spoke publicly of nis was its leader. vote of no confidence as he “The extent to which they had met previously with the than Minnis needed to be has chosen bad persons and the decision of the “dissithey have all been losers. dent seven” to depose Dr had a difficulty in support- seven MPs and cautioned deposed.

“There is no basis for When his voice should have Minnis as FNM leader, say- ing Minnis they ought to them against taking such what Mr Ingraham is saying been heard, they all lost be- ing their action was “inap- settle it in the party, and if action.

TYNES SAYS CHRISTIE GOVT HAS BEEN ‘DISMAL FAILURE’

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

PROMINENT lawyer Harvey Tynes, QC, criticised Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Progressive Liberal Party as he urged Bahamians to vote against the incumbent government on Wednesday in a bid to save the country.

Citing the two failed referenda, violent crime and the introduction of value added tax (VAT), Mr Tynes explained that despite Mr Christie’s likability, he has been a “dismal failure and complete disaster” in this five-year term.

Mr Tynes admitted that he voted for the PLP in 2012, but in a short video that was circulated on social media on Friday went on to describe the upcoming general election as the last chance to save the country.

“I happen to like Perry

Gladstone Christie,” he said. “The man has a big heart and a great sense of humour and I like people like that. Perry Christie happens to be one of my favourite people.

“Five years ago,” said Mr Tynes, “Christie begged us to give him a second chance; he admitted he had messed up his first time around. Christie promised us he would be our bridge to the future, I believed him. He seemed sincere,” Mr Tynes said.

“I voted PLP, most Bahamians voted PLP. We chose Perry Christie to lead our country out of the mess it was in. Now five years later what has Christie given us in return?”

Turning his attention to the failed referenda on gaming and gender equality, Mr Tynes noted that in both instances Mr Christie misled people about his administration’s agenda and

wasted millions of dollars on propaganda.

Mr Tynes campaigned against the gender equality referendum, arguing that instead of providing women the same rights as men when it came to the transfer of citizenship to their spouse; the provision should instead have been repealed altogether. He insisted that Article 10 of the Constitution was a mistake that never should have been included.

“He also gave us VAT,” he said, “a crippling tax burden on the poorest of our people who are now literally starving to death. He gave us a series of downgrades in our credit rating as a country to our current junk status and now we are

in danger of our Bahamian dollar being devalued.”

Mr Tynes said: “Meanwhile violent crime in our country has gone completely out of control and now comes the shocking news that senior well-paid members of Christie’s Cabinet are out there begging rich foreigners for personal favours instead of working to protect our interests as a people.”

He added: “Let us face the truth, Perry Christie has been a dismal failure and complete disaster.”

Mr Tynes’ eldest daughter, Tanisha, was appointed as a PLP senator this term.

• See the video of Harvey Tynes speaking on tribune242.com

PAGE 6, Monday, May 8, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

GAY MAN IS BEATEN UP DURING CARNIVAL from page one

wants the persons who were involved in the fight to be charged with a hate crime.

He said he will be pursuing the case when he returns to the US today and he also plans on suing for medical bills and pain and suffering.

Mr Brown, a Navy officer who came to The Bahamas to participate in Junkanoo Carnival, said he was dancing at the concert late Friday into early Saturday when he felt someone throw water on him.

“So I was at the concert and there was a stoop and I stepped up on the stoop and I was dancing,” Mr Brown told The Tribune.

“This was about 3am in the morning. So I am dancing and having a good time.

I had on a cut out shirt and fitted pants and I felt when some water hit me. So I looked back and I got up off the stoop and I said to the guy, ‘Why did you hit me with the water,” and he said ‘Because you a batty man,’” Mr Brown claimed.

“Batty man” is Jamaican slang for a homophobic slur.

“Now I don’t think he knew that I am originally from Jamaica,” Mr Brown continued.

“So before anything could happen his girlfriend came up in my face and slapped me and then four people just jumped me,” he claimed.

“Two girls and two guys.

Then two Bahamian men jumped in and started helping me. There was no conversation, they just started fighting me. I am not a fighter, I came here to The Bahamas to have fun, party and go back home. I don’t know these people from Adam and they do not know me and they were hitting me and beating me in my head with a rock. He just said ‘you are a batty man’ and they all jumped me. After the incident the other two guys that helped me held one of the guys until the police came.”

Mr Brown said he went to the police station and was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital a short time later but because of the long wait he went to Doctors Hospital where he was treated and discharged.

Despite the ordeal, he said he would come back to The Bahamas and will not let this one incident change his opinion of Bahamians.

“I am going back home tomorrow (Monday) but I am going to pursue this case. I am going to make sure as soon as I get off that plane in the morning I am going to call the Department of State and make sure that it is reported,” he said.

“I think they assumed because the way I was dressed that I was gay and I am gay, but I don’t know anyone here so they would not have known that. This was a hate crime. The police were very good, I went to the police station and they called the ambulance for me. I was still able to participate in carnival. I went on the truck but I couldn’t do what I wanted, I wanted to be on the road but I was hurt and slept most of the time.”

Mr Brown claimed police arrested one man.

This could not be confirmed up to press time, however Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean said police

were looking into the allegations.

This is not the first time a gay man claimed to have been attacked during a Bahamas Carnival event.

Last year, police were investigating allegations that a Nassau Street brawl captured on video was the result of a homophobic attack.

The brawl took place on the sidelines of the Road Fever street parade.

A video recording of the fight went viral alongside a voice recording of a distraught woman, who claimed that two of her gay friends were beat up because of their appearance.

In the video, a group of men and women can be seen swinging metal chairs and fighting. Although several police officers were standing by, only a male inspector is seen making an attempt to break up the fight as three women officers watched the scene.

“My two gay friends just get beat like a dog,” the unidentified woman sobs in the 2016 voice recording.

“We was on Nassau Street and they beat them just for

ADRIAN BROWN, who was attacked at Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff having on tight shirt, they beat them bad. My friend teeth out his mouth and everything, they ain’t do nothing they just was walking over to Super Value.

They just was walking, they get beat for nothing,” the woman claimed.

At the time, then Assistant Commissioner Stephen Dean said that no complaint had been filed in connection with the matter.

He said he had not received any report that the matter involved members of the LGBT community.

BOB bailout doubts raised from page one

“My concern about the $100m in non-performing

loans is that we the taxpayers are now responsible for it,” Mr Ingraham noted in his prepared speech.

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“So if any politician is caught up in this, we would wish to know and know what is being done about it. The government has put $50m of our money up to partially replenish the bank’s capital because of these non-performing loans.

“Well I asked on Wednesday night three questions, one of which I will deal with now but up to now I have not seen nor heard of any response to the questions asked.

“The question was: what was the lawful authority for the $50m paid by the government to partially cover the bank’s loss from these non-performing loans without the approval of the House of Assembly?

Not having received an answer, I presume therefore that the $50m paid by the government from our taxed and borrowed dollars was paid unlawfully and there are consequences for unlawful public expenditure.”

He also said the only way to “save” Bank of the Bahamas is to “fire the PLP”.

Tribune Business has learned that BOB is seeking Supreme Court protection from the Central Bank, with the regulator demanding an “immediate” $50m increase in loan loss provisions and legal action against “politically exposed” bad borrowers.

Legal documents ob-

tained reveal the extent of the stricken bank’s woes, with its problems so severe that its liquidity could deteriorate “quite literally on any day”.

Abhilash Bhachech, the Central Bank’s inspector of banks and trust companies, expressed concern that BOB’s application for a ‘stay’ of the regulator’s demands could undermine its ability to properly supervise the troubled BISX-listed institution. He warned that imposing a ‘hold’ or injunction on the Central Bank could also “further erode depositor and public confidence” in BOB, as well as undermine “the retail banking system of the Bahamas” given the bank’s systemic importance.

In February, Tribune Business reported that BOB’s financial statements for the half-year to endDecember 2016 showed that its total comprehensive loss had increased by almost $2m year-over-year, rising from $3.587m to $5.428m.

However, the loss for the final three months, or second quarter, dropped by 37.3 per cent, falling from $3.267m to $2.049m. Provisions for non-performing loans again helped to drive the ‘red ink’, as they rose for the half-year by 18 per cent, from $6.134m in 2015 to $7.237m at the end of last year.

In 2014, the Christie administration created a new company, Bahamas Resolve, to take over $100m in bad debt from BOB. At the time, BOB had incurred losses in the previous two years, with its most recent quarterly report noting that its shareholders incurred $4.172m in “red ink”.

While questioning if any well-connected members of the PLP are on the list of non-performing loans, Mr Ingraham continued: “The FNM has repeatedly asked for the names of persons on the list with negative results. I think you ought to know the answer to my question before you vote on Wednesday. You may decide that you shouldn’t be paying off their private loans. Or you might wish to do so.

It’s your choice.”

Mr Ingraham said PLP “big shots” think they are untouchable and “entitled to be crooked and corrupt”.

“They believe they are entitled to tell you that what you read, what you hear and what you see are illusions,” Mr Ingraham noted.

“They think your treasury is their bank account.

They are the most brazenly corrupt government in the history of the Bahamas from repair contracts to building contracts; from business contracts to kickbacks from transportation

contracts; from acting as front-men selling government approvals and permissions to issuance of permits and licences; to peddlers with arms stretched out collecting left right and centre.”

Mr Ingraham said a vote for the FNM is a vote for change - “change of your government, change of your condition, change of your economy, change in your community, change in your country, change for the better.”

In early February, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the government would soon make a full disclosure on the current affairs of BOB and Resolve Bahamas.

Firing back at suggestions at the time that such a disclosure would not come before the upcoming general election, Mr Christie said: “The elections are not in the near future.”

“Let me say that we are just about ready to come to Parliament with respect to Resolve, its operations and with respect to the Bank of the Bahamas (BOB). We are going to make a full disclosure as to the current affairs and the outcome of Resolve,” Mr Christie said in February.

However a full disclosure was never made in Parliament.

• BOB in legal battle with Central Bank, see Business section

CHRISTIE: GET SWAYED BY PAPA, END UP WITH MINNIS from page one at the end of the day the people of The Bahamas are smart enough to know that it is Minnis who is supposed to lead, it’s Minnis who is supposed to have an idea and a vision for the country, it’s Minnis who does not have the idea, does not have a vision and it is Minnis who is hiding behind a lot of nasty things this time around, just talking bad about people and hoping to win an election on it.”

Mr Christie’s comments came as he contrasted the unity in his party with the disunity in the FNM in recent years.

“The FNM is a party unlike the PLP,” he said. “You

have a united party, a party made of men and women that without any doubt whatsoever is the best team offered in the general election. Minnis’ party has a history of being broken up, disunited. You have a party with a leader with the known capacity to lead.

Minnis has not demonstrated any capacity to lead.

Minnis couldn’t keep seven or eight people together in Parliament. When we loan him two from the PLP, the two we lend him from the PLP couldn’t help him keep his position. He has a disjoined, broken up party.”

Since his return to the limelight last week, Mr Ingraham has been a dominant focus of attention for PLP supporters during ral-

lies and on social media platforms.

“They brought back ‘Papa Clown,’” Deputy Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis said Saturday. “‘Papa Clown’ is my boy but look how they brought him back, the first one, the first Hubert, to finish out the election because they don’t believe in the Hubert they got now.

If they don’t believe in him and they have to bring back the first Hubert, how they expect you to believe in him? Isn’t that something, asking Ingraham to bail him out?”

His comments came during a rally in Abaco. Mr Christie was expected to attend but did not, citing bad weather in the southern Bahamas where he had visited.

Edison Key, who represented Central and South Abaco as a member of the FNM since 2007, also spoke in support of the PLP in Abaco.

He called Dr Minnis a “Chihuahua” who won’t be able to lead the country.

Mr Key was one of seven FNM MPs who said they had no confidence in Dr Minnis as leader of the Official Opposition and had him removed from that post last December.

In early April Mr Key said he was no longer a member of the FNM and was back “home” with the PLP, a party he quit in 2004.

the stories behind the news

insight@tribunemedia.net

monday, may 8, 2017

A dramatic representation of how the Bahamas is a strategic geographical location straddling key air routes.

Plane negligence

T

he Ministry of Aviation and Transport’s failure to conclude a revenue share agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has allowed the US Department of Transportation to pocket an astonishing $591 million in ‘overflight fees’ since 2011.

Despite claims from Glenys Hanna Martin in January that this newspaper’s investigation into the uncollected revenues was “false news”, according to documents obtained exclusively by The Tribune the Bahamas cash-strapped Public Treasury - unlike 180 other nations around the globe - has yet to receive a cent while the US Federal Register records that the US FAA collected an estimated $355 million plus in ‘overflight’ fees between the financial years 2012 to 2015.

With the ever increasing fee structure, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the FAA would collect $117 million in 2016 and the FAA’s Eastern Regional Task Group Report states that that figure was expected to surge with the “reopening of commercial air services between Cuba and the US as carriers add between 40,000 and 70,000 new flights to the already crowded high altitude Sectors 40 and 60 of the Miami Oceanic East (ZMA) airspace” which lie within the geographical borders of the Bahamas archipelagic state.

The FAA gained authority from Congress in 2000 to charge carriers whose “overflight” fees for flights that traverse US controlled airspace, but neither land nor take off in the United States, according to reports from the Government Accountability Office, US Inspector General’s Office, Audits of the FAA, the Congressional Budget Office, FAA Office of Financial Controls and International Airline Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Since 2006, ATC Reform News states: “The FAA applied this authority, without protest from the Bahamas government”, to foreign and Bahamian carriers whose 511,000 flights use the sovereign airspace of the Bahamas (re-designated by FAA as ‘Miami Oceanic (ZMA) and is now considered part of the Continental US En Route Airspace) which straddles the key air routes between South Florida and Cuba, Latin America, Central America, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Repub-

A Tribune special investigation reveals the Bahamas has forfeited millions in potential earnings because of government delays in concluding a revenue-sharing agreement for overflight fees lic, Jamaica, Caribbean, Mexico and Europe.

Robert Poole Jr, Director of Transportation Studies at the Reason Foundation, states in his report, “Solving Air Traffic Control Funding Crisis,” that “the Bahamas is one of only 20 small and relatively poor countries in the world Benin, Brunei, Comoros, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Kiribati, Kuwait, Lesotho, Monaco, Namibia, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Swaziland, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu - that don’t charge for ATC services.”

Sky Bahamas CEO, Captain Randy Butler, said: “I’ve been saying for years it’s worth millions, but I never dreamed it was worth hundreds of millions a year. I can’t believe the PLP are celebrating as if they’ve won the PowerBall lottery when all they have done is stopped a foreign entity (FAA) from charging Bahamian airlines for the privilege of flying our own nation’s airspace, which they haven’t had the authority to do so, and used this money to fund their Essential Air Services Act.” On January 11, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that the Government had reached a “landmark and historic” agreement with the FAA which will result in the exemption of Bahamian aircraft operators from payment of overflight fees to the FAA on flights which take off and land in the Bahamas.

Two months later, the Government’s ‘declaration of intent’ with the FAA formalised the January accord, which was billed as a first step towards the Bahamas taking back control of its air space and establishing a Flight Information Region (FIR), something that will allow the country to levy and collect fees from airlines flying over the Bahamas rather than the FAA. Under the agreement, the FAA will continue to manage Bahamian airspace, as it has done since 1952, for another 10 years to allow the Bahamas to build the necessary technical, human and infrastructure capacity to develop its own FIR.

Mrs Hanna Martin said the March declaration had a number of components “and one is that the levying of overflight fees for domestic aircraft ceased on January 1, 2017.

The declaration of intent indicates that there will be an absolute legal initiative to stop it completely. It also indicates that we will enter into a 10-year agreement that will deal with the FAA manning the airspace. The Bahamas government will collect the overflight fees and will agree a management fee for the US, which has the technology and the human resources for that purpose.”

A 2004 International Civil Aviation Organisation paper on the proposed Bahamian FIR had said that apart from the country taking “full control over its sovereign airspace”, the initiative would create 100 direct jobs and annual government revenues of $30 million. Given the increase in aviation traffic to the Bahamas over the past decade, it is likely the earnings would be more.

But little had been done in the 13 years since.

The late Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling and former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Hanna

GEOGRPAHIC LOCATION SRI LANKA

MARGINAL

AFGHANISTAN UKRAINE**

MARGINAL SUPPOSEDLY SAFE CORRIDOR

Unknown 150

IRAN IRELAND /UK PAKISTAN

SAFE CORRIDOR MIDDLE EAST KEY TRANSATLANTIC ROUTE SAFE CORRIDOR

350 1,400 Hundreds

SIBERIA

KEY ROUTE TO ASIA

BAHAMAS

KEY ROUTE TUSA, L.AMERICA

1,400

USA

GLOBAL SUPERPOWER

50,553

YEARLY REVENUE

$10,000,000 (1) $33,000,000(2) $200,000,000(3) $237,250,000(4) $196,190,000(5)

100

FAILED TO BILLCARRIERS SINCE 2012(6)

$511,000,000+(7) $000,000,000(8)

600-800

SOURCES (1) Sri Lanka News Portal, Civial Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva

(5) Republic of Ireland Aviation Authority Annual Report 2015

(2) U.S. Department of Defence

(6) Estimates form EuroControl Excluding Payments from Asian Carriers

(3) The Washington Post, World Views, July 2015

(7) The Express Tribune, Pakistan, June 2014

(4) Times of India Business Section

(8) Report from FAA Eastern Regional Task Group/ July 2015

** Air Space now Closed after Missile Attack on Malaysia flight 777

(9) FAA & U.S. Department of Transportation

The revenues from overlfight fees other nations are making.

US Federal Register recording some of the FAA revenues from overflight fees. continued to manage and control this airspace, since 2006 Bahamasair and other carriers in the Bahamas have had to pay the FAA for the right to fly within the Bahamas,” said the Prime Minister, admitting that “the revenues earned to this point for all aircraft overflying the Bahamas airspace have been retained by the FAA”.

“Does the Prime Minister not appreciate what a mockery the USA is making of the PLP’s campaign promise to ‘Put Bahamian’s First’ while US airlines fly over our nation for free and we have yet to

“Can the Prime Minister please tell me when Sky Bahamas, Bahamasair and other carriers are going to get a refund from the FAA?” – Capt Randy Butler, CEO, Sky Bahamas had agreed to the continuation of the FAA’s air traffic control authority - initially delegated to the US at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) special meeting in Cuba in 1952 - in 1975. For many years the PLP reaffirmed this authority, while failing to re-institute any overflight fees, which is standard practice around the world. This was contrary to Mr Christie’s claim that the Bahamas had actually been charging overflight fees since December 14, 1951.

“While the FAA has

DAILY OVER-FLIGHTS

COUNTRY

receive a dime on any of this revenue?” Capt Butler told The Tribune. “Can the Prime Minister please tell me when SkyBahamas, Bahamasair and other carriers are going to get a refund from the FAA?” We March co-founder John Bostwick said he did “not fault any government for delegating the FAA with responsibility to provide high altitude air traffic control services to our nation as it’s such a capital intensive, complex and risky undertaking. While

one can delegate responsibility of the provision of air traffic control services over its territory it does not derogate one’s sovereignty but said state retains competency to exercise its legislative, administrative and judicial powers exclusively within our national borders.

“What concerns me is that the PLP appears to have sold the sovereign ownership of our nation’s air space and internal waters to the Americans.

When one stops to consider the FAA’s Eastern Regional Task Group estimates over 511,000 flights traverse our sovereign airspace each year while Aviation Minister Hanna Martin has allowed a foreign entity to tax the citizens of our sovereign nation without our consent ... yet those flights, which take off and land in the US, or US-registered planes, have used our airspace for free since 2011.”

“Even the blind can see we are talking millions of dollars,” one aviation expert commented, “especially when you’ve had the proposal lying on your desk for over five years.”

Mrs Hanna Martin refuted assertions in a Tribune article in January that accused the Progressive Liberal Party of being responsible for the country’s loss of millions of dollars in overflight fees, charging that the newspaper was engaging in “fake news” and a “perverse misrepresentation of the facts”. She said the PLP is the only government that has “assiduously pursued the realisation of the sovereign air space of

the Commonwealth of The Bahamas”, as well as the “payment of overflight fees for the Bahamian people”.

She suggested that the previous Free National Movement administration was to blame for the amount of time it has taken to achieve this, as she said during that administration’s 2007-2012 term, “little effort, if any was made to pursue the 2006 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposal,” which she said was on the table prior to the 2007 election.

Tribune Media Group President Robert Dupuch Carron responded: “It’s just so typical that a PLP Minister would embark upon such a personal and vitriolic attack upon the credibility of our crusading publication instead of explaining how the PLP allowed a foreign entity (FAA) to charge ‘overflight’ fees to Bahamian and foreign carriers using our sovereign airspace since 2006 - despite never being delegated with Parliamentary authority to do so - yet allows flights that take off and land in the United States or private US jets to use our nations air space for free.

“I wholeheartedly support our government stopping the FAA charging Bahamian airlines, but it’s almost unforgivable that the Minister of Aviation allowed thousands of planes and ships belonging to ‘foreign carriers’ to transit our air space and the internal seas of our sovereign archipelagic each day for free.”

• Comments and responses to insight@tribunemedia.net

PAGE 8 MONDAY, May 8, 2017

Email: insight@tribunemedia.net

The day of reckoning W ednesday, May 10, will be a day of reckoning for the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).

After five years of horrendous, scandal ridden governance, the people of the Bahamas will finally have an opportunity to kick this Christie-led administration to the kerb and elect a party that will bring about change and accountability once again.

A Free National Movement (FNM) government is the only way for the Bahamas to restore some dignity to this nation and root out the corruption and incompetence that has plagued us for the last five years.

Perry Christie, during his first term in office from 2002-2007, presided over a similar, although now in comparison, far less corrupt administration.

Back then, many within his cabinet were only “small time” compared to what they are now. Back then, you had the same begging of investors and the odd inside dealing and kickbacks for contracts. But the size of the asks was far less, and the demand for contracts was far less frequent than now. Many business persons and investors in our country today, the few who still could stomach to do business here, call it “the cost of doing business”.

In a first world country, it wouldn’t exist. But here, in the banana republic that we have become, the PLP feeds off it. Better yet, they encourage it. There must be “something for the boys” they would say, as they laugh themselves into fatter and fatter bank accounts, all while the people of the nation are made poorer by the minute.

But we are in election season now, and the PLP wants us to forget the abus-

Malcom J Strachan says a desperate PLP government is clearly prepared to do anything to stay in power and is insulting the intelligence of Bahamians

es we have had to suffer over the last five years.

They want us to forget about the record levels of crime we’ve had to endure, and rampant corruption we have seen, and are still being exposed to thanks to recent leaks and revelations in the media.

We have a cabinet minister who knowingly kept the fact that his constituents were being poisoned by a gas station leak for over a year, and still today has the gall to not only campaign in that area, but distribute water bottles with his face and logo on them as part of his campaign materials.

We have another government minister who illegally received donations into a United States bank account from a scandal ridden private investor while he was a sitting member of the Cabinet. When exposed, this minister had the audacity to claim the donations were for “scholarships” for his constituents. All shame has been lost. We don’t need to go into the others, as they are far too many, and it would take up all the space we have in this column.

But what we would like to address is their new offence.

The crème de la crème: the PLP is cautioning voters to not vote against them on Wednesday, suggesting that

a vote for the FNM would be a vote to stopping the progress that their party has created.

Now, if we wanted to be funny, we would list those “accomplishments” or “projects” here for you, but they would all add up to the same zero, so why go through that exercise? If you look at and listen to their description of their works, everything is coached in aspirational tones. “Your PLP Government will do this … your PLP government will move quickly to do that … your PLP government has laid the ground work to do the next, and so on and so on.”

You get the picture.

Poor Picewell Forbes in South Andros is a prime example of this. For five years, Picewell cannot point to one single substantive improvement he has done for his constituents on that island. Not one. We challenge him to show otherwise. His entire re-election campaign was a photo of him standing in front of a tractor as he looked out to nearby bushes where a promised basketball/sporting complex would be completed. What an utter disgrace.

Which leads us to our next point. The carrot and the stick approach that this administration has so shamelessly utilised over

“Mr Davis, in what could only be a joke, promised residents of Long Island running water (let that sink one for a moment) if the PLP was returned to office.”

Suggesting the FNM might ‘stop and cancel’ a contract to bring drinking water to Long Island and that VAT money has been spent on the new Defence Force fleet paints Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis in a poor light. Photo/Shawn Hanna the last few weeks.

The Prime Minister and his candidates have been up and down the country promising one development after the next. Suddenly, after five years of incompetence, this Christie administration is signing deals and groundbreakings are all “just around the corner”.

Either Christie and his merry men had been asleep at the wheel for four and a half years and only now have awoken to show us what they can do, or (the more likely and realistic option) they are lying to us.

Just listen to what the Deputy Prime Minister, Philip Davis, said in Long Island during their recent “rally” there. Mr Davis, in what could only be a joke, promised residents of Long Island running water (let that sink one for a moment) if the PLP was returned to office. Mr Davis said an international lending agency had provided the funding and plans were underway for $22million to be spent to install running water throughout the island. He urged voters not to elect the FNM because that party could “stop and cancel” that contract and thus deprive the people of fresh, drinking water.

Remember now, we’re in 2017. In 2017, an elected official is promising running water? Keep in mind, Long Island only got electricity in the early 1990s after suffering under the yoke of the PLP who punished that island for 25 years for not supporting the then governing Pindling regime. For 25 years that island had issues with its infrastructure and bore the brunt of oppression while Pindling wheeled and dealed his way to wealth and opulence. Now here we are in 2017, and Mr Davis wants us to believe that the FNM will deny its own supporters drinking water.

They must think we have rocks in our heads! Either they believe that Bahamians are that stupid or they really don’t give two hoots what we think and they say these things anyway.

It’s like Mr Davis’ other little foot in mouth exchange on ZNS with Darold Miller.

The PLP’s paid-for phone callers and radio show texters sent in the prepared message by their Greenberg consultants who tried to

propagate the line that the much-touted Value Added Tax money had been spent on the new Royal Bahamas Defence Force fleet. Mr Miller, rightly, stopped his reading of the message midsentence and expressed his displeasure. Mr Davis tried to continue the line and was made to look like a fool as Mr Miller took him to task on the fact that the money for the boats was borrowed, and not a part of the spending of VAT. To all those listening, it was a telling sign of the level of contempt and arrogance that has gripped this administration. he PLP of Christie from 2002-2007 wasn’t this bad. Just look at what this lot are doing in these last days of their administration After fighting the police force for years on their overtime pay, suddenly on the day before the police were heading to the advance polls to vote, the PLP says they will not only pay the officers their money, but they issued promotions for them across the board.

In other jurisdictions, this would be called and seen for what it is - bribery. But here, we must go through the motions, and grin and bear it. And we wonder why

T

ernment offices, ostensibly hired as security and cleaners, with nothing to do.

They are being paid $11,000 per person, costing each ministry $2.2million. That’s a whopping $35.2 million spent to secure votes ahead of a general election.

There must be something that this PLP government does not want the Bahamian people to find out. Why they are going to these extremes to pad their support ahead of the election. What else has the Bahamian people been blind to that will be revealed?

We’ve heard whispers of a secret sale of BEC to a Texas tycoon, with two prominent PLPs involved in a side deal for a “piece of the action”. But, surely, Christie has learned from his Bluewater debacle of 2007 to attempt such lunacy at this late stage. Surely, there must not be this level of desperation setting in where the PLP would try this move again.

But who knows. If their internal polls are telling them what the people in the country are truly saying, then who knows what lengths they may go to.

All we know is that the only way to get to the bottom of what has transpired

“There must be something that this PLP government does not want the Bahamian people to find out.” our crooked politicians feel a sense of invincibility?

Just look at their other campaign pledges. Free electricity! Can you imagine, in a country where in the capital city the power cuts out nearly every other day, they now want to offer the service for free? BEC is broke, and thousands of Bahamians are without the service today because it is too expensive, but the PLP wants you to believe they could give it away for free.

Another insult to intelligent Bahamians.

But the ultimate insult will be what the FNM must expose when they come to office - the 200 new hires that have been authorised at every ministry by this administration. Many of these persons are sitting in Gov-

over the last five years, there must be a change in government in this country.

And the only real chance of that is with the FNM. The only way to ensure that corrupt politicians are hauled before the courts and made an example of, would be if the FNM is elected to office. And the only way for that to happen is to vote FNM on May 10.

This election is about where we want our country to go further into the darkness of corruption and scandal or into the sunshine.

So, I urge all of you, to not throw your vote away behind anything else. This election is too important to risk it on anything else.

• Comments and responses to insight@tribunemedia.net

MONDAY, MAY 8, 2017 PAGE 9

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net

Debt strangling a Caribbean generation

T

World View

HERE is a real prospect that, in dealing with unsustainable debt, 11 of 13 Caribbean small states will have lost the first three decades of the 21st century and foregone opportunities for poverty By SIR RONALD SANDERS reduction, transformation and growth.

That judgment has been from which there is no re- performance - Bahamas, made by a leading devel- turn, the level rises with no Barbados, Belize, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and opment economist who means of repayment.

The cost of debt service Tobago. has studied and worked on has become so high that The causes of the high small economies. it severely constrains the debt-to-GDP ratios in Cyrus Rustomjee is a South African-born, former spending capacity of gov- Caribbean countries are head of the Economic Af- ernments to provide goods many and poor policy fairs Division of the Com- and services immediately choices by some governmonwealth Secretariat. In needed by their people and ments are among them. that position, he produced to invest in projects for eco- But it is important to note that in seven of the largest well-considered papers for nomic growth.

Both the International debtor countries, Rustomthe G20 on the development challenges confront- Monetary Fund (IMF) and jee’s study shows that debt ing developing countries. the World Bank have sug- rose due to the following: His recent study, “Pathways gested that a debt-to-GDP infrastructure reconstructhrough the silent crisis: ratio above 60 per cent is tion after natural disasters; Innovations to Resolve dangerous, since debt ser- reduction in aid; little or Unsustainable Caribbean vicing would absorb such no access to concessional Public Debt”, was commis- a high portion of revenues financing, forcing governsioned by the Centre for that governments would be ments to borrow on tough left with little commercial terms; erosion International to provide the of European Union trade ‘Troublingly, Governance, goods and ser- preferences since the early an independent six countries vices their peo- 1990s; and the impact on think-tank in - including ple expect. And tourism of the global ecoCanada. that is precisely nomic crisis which began in Losing “the The Bahamas the problem that 2008. He might have added first three dec- - experienced many Caribbean the region’s large annual ades of the 21st governments trade deficit with the Unitcentury” is a an increase face. ed States, its largest tradgrim prospect. in their debtAs the situa- ing partner, that reached That’s practi- to-GDP ratios tion stands, at US$5.2 billion in 2016 with cally an entire generation of over their 2015 the end of 2016, a serious decline in Caronly two of the ibbean exports, including Caribbean peo- performance.’

14 independ- under the duty-free proviple. As Rustoment Caribbean sions for some goods of the jee points out, the problem is not that debt Community (CARICOM) Caribbean Basin Economic accumulation and debt countries had debt-to-GDP Recovery Act. Indeed, were it not for servicing pose an intrinsic ratios under 60 per cent threat to poverty reduction, Guyana and Haiti. The 12 low-cost loans and grants, growth and development; with ratios over 60 per cent particularly from China and but unsustainable high debt were Antigua and Barbuda Venezuela and also from and debt servicing levels do. (92.1), Bahamas (66.9), Bar- Taiwan in respect of three Promoting development bados (107.9), Belize (98.6), of them, the circumstances by raising loans has been a Dominica (81), Grenada of these countries would useful tool for many coun- (84), Jamaica (115.2), St have been much worse.

Projections are that, on tries throughout history. Kitts-Nevis (65.8), St LuJudicious levels of debt cia (82.6), St Vincent and its present course, by 2020, have contributed to growth The Grenadines (79.2), debt will remain unsustainthrough their investment in Suriname (64.6) and Trini- able in 11 Caribbean small productive enterprises that dad and Tobago (61). states, and there will be no produced revenue streams Troublingly, six of these change in 2030 when the to repay borrowings. But countries experienced an UN’s Agenda for Sustainwhen debt is used to pay increase in their debt-to- able Development will have for recurrent expenditures GDP ratios over their 2015 run its course.

Unless the international community responds appropriately to this grave problem, these countries will not only lose the first three decades of the 21st century, thereby witnessing a reversal in the advances they have made, but poverty and unemployment will increase and opportunities for economic growth will bypass them.

Other countries in the region will not be immune to the consequences. All reside in the same neighbourhood and none can pick up itself to move to a more desirable location. The adverse consequences in one will spill over into the others, in the form of economic refugees, job seekers and crime. This trend has already begun.

As bad as it may seem, the problem of high debtto-GDP ratios is not insurmountable. But it requires creative thinking and commitment from governments and the international community, including re-opening concessional financing from international financial institutions; external creditors, agreeing to write-off

or reduce their loans; governments setting an annual cap on borrowing; and swapping debt for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Caribbean countries with high debt-to-GDP ratios are not without sound argument to encourage international responsiveness to their plight. These countries did not create climate change; they are the victims of the profligacy of the industrialised nations but they have to pay for reconstruction by incurring debt.

Further, they are markets for the goods and services of others with little compensation. And some of the debt they acquired was used to fight drug trafficking that contributed to the wellbeing of others.

Regrettably, there has been no promotion of such international co-operation, largely because, so far, Caribbean countries have soldiered on, maintaining political and social stability and avoiding economic calamity. And the region itself has done little to place the issue on the international agenda and argue it force-

fully.

The contention will be made that CARICOM countries must first show themselves willing to reduce their debt. Well, six countries did so in 2016: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts-Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines reduced their debt from the previous years.

Their effort has shown what is possible and, as the catalyst for encouraging an international response, it has to be replicated across the region particularly by the six whose debt-to-GDP ratios increased.

The alternative is to strangle a generation.

• Sir Ronald Sanders is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the US and the Organisation of American States. He is also Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are his own. Responses and previous commentaries: www. sirronaldsanders.com.

ELIZABETH Independent Candidate

ABOUT YOUR CANDIDATE

B

Terneille Burrows

(professionally known as “TaDa”)

orn in 1980, Terneille Burrows (professionally known as “TaDa”) is a well-known Bahamian music executive and activist. At the age of 19, Terneille blazed onto the international recording arts scene, emerging as the Grand Prize Winner of the hip-hop category in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (2000). She later went on to receive several music video grants from Much Music and was a recipient of multiple Caribbean Gospel Music Marlin Awards. Her voice was heard throughout the United States on the “Better in The Bahamas” jingle and she has had music appear in several international films and television programs.

Terneille was also a Lyford Cay Scholar who went on to achieve has an honors diploma in Recording Arts Management from the Harris Institute in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In addition, she holds an honors diploma in Entrepreneurial Business Applications from the Academy of Learning in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She is a past youth parliamentarian, and has represented The Bahamas at international conferences including CARIFORUM (2015), World Music Expo (2011) and the CARICOM Regional Cultural Committee Meeting (2009) and also a recipient of numerous international music awards.

Nowadays, Terneille has gained significant recogni-

tion for championing the rights and protections of women and children and for her advocacy work towards anti-corruption, accountability and transparency. In 2009 Terneille started Bahamas Against Sexual Violence & Child Abuse (now known as Bahamas Child Abuse & Sexual Violence Prevention). They host public education events and support the advocacy initiatives of organizations such as the Bahamas Crisis Centre and Bahamas Women’s Watch.

In early 2014 Terneille officially put her music career of pause and formed the grassroots activists movement Rise Bahamas. Since inception, Rise Bahamas has been pushing for the full implementation of Marco’s Law, stiffer penalties for child abuse offenses, a violence prevention plan, gender based violence prevention, freedom of information, public disclosure law breach prosecutions and anticorruption reform. During the same year, Terneille contacted the Organization of American States (OAS) to request an anti-corruption investigation.

On September, 2014 OAS Officials arrived in New Providence to conduct the investigation, which yielded a 107 page report.

In 2015, Terneille was appointed the National Director for The Bahamas during an edition of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), which is the

largest advocacy initiative in the world on changing the representation of women in the media. She is also a 2015 recipient of the Bain & Grants Town Advancement Award for youth leadership. In March of 2016, she was awarded a World Day of Prayer Bahamas Committee grant for her work with public education and advocacy towards the elimination of gender based violence and child abuse.

In light of her many experiences, Terneille is compelled to offer herself for candidacy as a prospective Member of Parliament. She has become richly invested in ensuring that the Bahamian populace becomes engaged in the social and political affairs of the country and hopes that someday, The Bahamas becomes a place where people are empowered and living in peace. She envisions a country that stands for justice and humanity with governments that are responsible and not corrupt.

PAGE MONDAY, MAY PAGE 10,10 Monday, January 23, 2017 8,

A10INSIGHT

2017

GAIN AN EDGE A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HIGHER EDUCATION

Why diversified UB graduate has education key designs on is leadership to G social equity R ROWING up in the tranquil, picturesque settlement of Bunches, Long Island, Deanya Knowles enjoyed OCHELLE painting theSmith beauty surhad rounding herprayed and one long day and thought she hard might become about what an sheartist. wanted to do with her With more and more exlife. posure to new she She was in themedia, 11th grade began to embrace her growand a decision regarding the ing interestof in trajectory hercomputers, life needed cameras and editing.

Today, to be made. She would inher creativity is infused form her mother tonight. in theAs visual shearts. reluctantly apUpon graduation proached Mrs Smith,from she NGM Majorthe High School could sense exhaustion. in 2013, Ms worked Knowles en-Mrs Smith hard rolled at the then College of both parents did, for they The Bahamas (COB) and wanted the best for their majored children.in Media Journal-

“Mummy, I’ve made a decision. I want to do hair and nails.”

Vexed, Mrs Smith replied, “Girl you crazy aye!

All that money we plunking out to put you in private school and you say you wan’ do what?! Girl you better get out my face and pray about what to do with your life!”

Rochelle retreated, heartbroken, despondent, but was determined to make her mother proud.

She prayed long and hard and decided to pursue medicine.

As Bahamians, we know this story all too well. We give our children the best education because we have DEANYA Knowles withbecome friends hopes that they will Jasper Ward Carand doctorsWilliams and lawyers.

Georgette Albury at the UBFIT penters and massage therFun Run should Walk Skate. apists only be the alternative when medical

On May 25, University of The Bahamas will host its historic first commencement ceremony since its charter Failure to have both on November 10, 2016 TVET and traditional

ism.

Her excitement and inhamas and Belize who won academics available creativity grew each semes- the Caribbean’s first mediaallalong school ter with programmes her skills in thon hosted by Compete directing, cinematography Caribbean. Compete Caris a disservice to and editing. ibbean is a private sector our children and “I can recall in my video development programme country, says Remiska class my lecturer, Henri- that provides technical asetta Cartwright, English asked me sistance grants and investWildgoose, what I wanted to do when ment funding to support instructor at BTVI I graduated. I said to her, productive development ‘Honestly, don’t know. climate TVET is business a first option for school doesI not work out. policies, It’s either graphics film.’ reforms, clustering initiasome is an important step Unfortunately, as aorsociety, She me ‘Don’t and Small and Meditowards progression.

The we said placetowhite collarlimit jobs tives yourself to justOur one.educaYou um Size Enterprise (SME) child that is talented with on a pedestal. can do system both.’ Today, I am in their hands isactivities just as inteltional separates the development aiming to with do just that,” she the Caribbean. ligent as the child who asstudents “great potenrecalled.

“It was fun getting to to pursue medicine. tial”, and for those students pires That different Socialpeople equityfrom begins with we give advice our best.served her know well.

Even before graduatandcarpenter working on a us, for the and However, countries such countries ing a bachelor’s thatboth we all the doctor endseemed up conas with Finland, whose degree educa- project she hassystem laid the foundashe said. tributing toabout,” the society as a tional rivals most, passionate tion for that a successful consisted of whole.process Thus, failure to have shows 45 per career. cent of “The Ms Knowles is aa technical graphic us creating pitchboth TVETan andidea, traditional students choose designer with Three Amiit, and implementing academics available in it. all track as opposed to the tra- ing gos Media, also known as Our idea, ‘So You Wanna school programmes is truly ditional academics*.

What 3AM, a company thattake threea Be STEM-tastic!’, an auga disservice to ouris children if Joshua, who can ambitious the mented-reality aimed and ultimately book our country. car apart University and put itofback Bahamas (UB) graduates inspiring children ages this pivotal moment, together, or Gabrielle, who at At founded specialises becomeanswer interthere tois11noto simple can paintwhich nails like artwork seven in design, photograin careers in Science, to solve our social and ecoongraphic a canvass, had the op- ested phy and videography.

This Engineering nomic ills. Nevertheless, portunity early on to be Technology, spring, will graduate Math The one of our (STEM). answers lies in seen asshe a success for who and with BAas degree in Media when the photos are placing diversified educatheyaare, opposed to the book, Journalism, of the fast- scanned smartphones, tion at with the forefront.

All expectationsonethat society est growing in the into mini-videos of countries, especially deprojects ontofields them?

For turns country.

Caribbean need perveloping countries, students like these, tech- successful Last vocational November, education the same sons working development in Science, balanced nical month COB transitioned Engineerthrough all and of the educaand training (TVET) tois Technology UB, also made history: ing.

I gained so in much from tional sectors order to first she choice. sheWhile was a part of aare teamstill of this experience and progress I’m exmake significant there media and communications for the opin termsgrateful of national develchanges needed to be made tremely professionals from the Ba- portunity.” opment (Bennell,1996). in our educational system, embracing the fact that We must see beyond 2017

EMAIL: insight@tribunemedia.net THE TRIBUNE

GAIN AN EDG

A NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HIGHER EDUC

Recently, Ms Knowles a former Public Relations Director for UB’s Student Government Association made her mark again in the creation of the branding for the highly successful UBFIT Fun Run Walk Skate.

“When asked to come up with a unique brand for UBFIT, I did some research as to what makes a fun run event special, what would draw the eye.

I wanted to incorporate the University colours and the words ‘UBFIT’ as part of the actual design. The right font is crucial and so I added movement by incorporating persons running and walking. The end result is a simple, clean design I’m very proud of. I’m happy that I was able to contribute to my institution and such a memorable event, leaving my mark behind for others to see.”

Ms Knowles intends to enter the workforce with a goal to save money and seek scholarships to enter graduate school in Spring, 2018. She represents one of the student leaders that UB has been intent on developing for more than four decades and if her recent accomplishments are any indication of future success, there is more to come.

• “Gain An Edge” is a weekly collaboration of the Lyford Cay Foundations, Bahamas Technical REMISKA WILDGOOSE and Vocational Institute and University of The Baand look to 2027, our well-diversified educational duce instantaneous results, hamas aimed at when promotsystem is one small but sig- it is an alternative that will educational ing a national system dialogueproon nificant step towards long- make a tremendous differduces education. more thanToenough higher share term economic prosperity ence. qualified, visionary your thoughts, emailcitizens gainin our nation. who could build a world DEANYA For many students at the anedge@tribunemedia.net.

KNOWLES, designer of the UBFIT logo for the inaugufurther investment class resort that would rival ral While Bahamas Technical UBFIT Fun Run Walk Skate at University of The Bahamas. and most. Implementing TVET into developing our educa- Vocational Institute, TVET programmes and having a tional system may not pro- is their only choice because it is what they love. As leaders, teachers, and parents, it is incumbent that we continue to embrace Today Wednesday Friday TVET as an alternative all levels so Business - the governFollow the 2017 elecWeekend - a at 28-page secall individuals ment is in secret talks over tion as the votes come tion devoted to can the become best in valuable contributing mema new power generation in with The Tribune’s arts, music, fashion, food, bers of entertainment, society. deal and the troubled Bank popular election tally books, garStories like matters, that of Roof The Bahamas is seeking sheets. Constituency by dening, animal fitchelle, whose name has Central Bank protection, constituency, polling ness, history and interviews been changed for - the pruNeil Hartnell reports division by polling diviA Comic’s View Naughpose of this article, are Sports - Brazil win the sion, you can fill in the ty’s unique take on the elecmuch too common.

Like FIFA Beach Soccer World results and the number tion soSports many- The others, medical Cup in Nassau and Fourth of votes for each candiFinish Line, school did not work out. In Quarter Press looks at the date as they are declared a look at the local sports the end, she still pursued rise and rise of 400m star across the country. scene,

by Brent Stubbs what she loved beauty Steven Gardiner Tribune Tech - a weekly trades. Saturday Plus the latest proper- look at what’s new in the ties for sale and rent in the world of technology The Tribune’s Top 5: Sources video review of Home Buyers’ Guide Plus Larry Smith’s a special (2012). forthright Tough Call col- the*Mark week’s Phillips top stories by Why should we care about Tuesday umn Khrisna Virgil on www.

Vocational Education?

Woman and Health tribune242.com **Bennell, weekly advice on taking Thursday Every day in PThe(1996).

TribGeneral vocational care of your mind and body Who has won the elec- une, news,versus business, sports, secondaryand education in deand women making waves tion? Full reports, photo- weather Classifieds veloping country: A review in The Bahamas graphs and results Trader - the best guide to of rates return Plus comment from Obituaries and Religion, cars for of sale, realevidence. estate, The wanted Journal DevelopNicole Burrows and the a weekly review help andofmore. ment Studies.

Press Box sporting thoughts ‘On da Hook’, a weekly Plus breaking news and “Gain Edge” is a of Inigo “Naughty” Zenica- look at fishing in The BaupdatesAn on your mobileweekly of zelaya hamas friendlycollaboration tribune242.com the Lyford Cay Foundations, Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute and University of The Bahamas aimed at promoting a national dialogue on higher education. To share TECHNICAL vocational education and training is important to your thoughts, email gainanedge@tribunemedia.net. help students, says Remiska Wildgoose.

ELECTION WEEK IN THE TRIBUNE

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 11

Man jailed for 35 years for killing his mother

By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN convicted by a Supreme Court jury of matricide has been given a 35year prison sentence.

Jerome Butler, 57, appeared before Justice Indra Charles two weeks ago when his lawyer David Cash suggested that he receive a lesser sentence within the 30-60 year range set out by the Court of Appeal in the case authority of Larry Raymond Jones.

Prosecutor Uel Johnson recommended a 40-year penalty for the death of Butler’s 81-year-old mother, Princess Butler. Justice Charles deferred her decision on sentencing until May 4.

On Thursday afternoon, Justice Charles found that the mitigating and aggravating circumstances of Butler’s case warranted a sentence of 35 years at the Department of Correctional Services to take effect from the date of conviction, January 27.

However, the time was reduced to 33 years after the two years spent on remand was taken into account.

Justice Charles further ordered that Butler undergo counselling during his incarceration.

Butler can lodge a challenge against both his con-

viction and sentence to the Court of Appeal within 21 days.

Butler stood trial for 10 days in front of Justice Charles concerning the February 4, 2015 murder.

Mrs Butler was found dead in her home at Petersfield Road in Highbury Park shortly after 8am.

An autopsy revealed that she died of asphyxia, and as a result of finding facial bruises and internal injuries about her body, police launched an investigation.

Her son was arraigned in Magistrate’s Court 12 days later in connection with the death. He pleaded not guilty to murder when formally arraigned in the Supreme Court three months later.

During the trial, the jury heard testimony from Corporal Chris Pickstock, who presented photos and videos extracted from a Samsung Galaxy cellphone, allegedly owned by Butler.

According to Cpl Pickstock, the videos and photos were taken on February 4 at 6.30am and 6.34am.

During cross-examination by Mr Cash, Cpl Pickstock acknowledged that there were “a lot” of other videos and photos in the phone.

Crime scene investigator Constable 1800 Levar Neely said he took photographs of the crime scene on Feb-

ruary 10. One of the photographs showed a suspected bloodstain on the bedroom floor, the jury was told.

Mr Cash asked Constable Neely if it was the “best practice” in homicide investigations to take photographs while the body was at the scene. The detective agreed with the defence lawyer’s suggestion.

Constable Neely also agreed that he could not say how many people were in the room between February 4 and 10, 2015.

The jury also heard testimony from Dr Austin Davis, who examined the body and said the initial death certificate indicated that the victim had died of natural causes, as he had found nothing peculiar about the body, except for a bloodstain on the sheet.

Sergeant 527 Basil Evans testified that he had questioned the 57 year old at the Central Detective Unit on February 12, 2015, concerning his alleged involvement in his mother’s murder.

He denied suggestions during his video recorded interview with police that he had physically attacked his mother and choked her to death because of an argument over money he had spent on his girlfriend.

Mr Johnson and Alicia Delancy prosecuted the case.

ONE MAN DEAD AND ANOTHER HOSPITALISED IN SHOOTING from page one

According to reports, two men pulled up in a car at a home on Providence Avenue. They parked the car, got out and shot the men.

The car sped off and the two suspects fled on foot in an unknown direction. One of the men died at the scene and the other was rushed to hospital where he remains in serious condition.

Police have not identified the victim, but The Tribune understands he is Trevor “Straw Boy” Thompson.

Anyone with information on this homicide is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328TIPS. Investigations continue.

The murder comes several days after a man, who was shot in the head at a car wash in the Marathon area Thursday evening, died in hospital a short time later.

Although police released limited details, The Tribune understands that the victim, Leo Rahming, was shot at a property on which he operated a business.

Rahming was taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital in a private vehicle.

He was pronounced dead a short time later.

Since the Progressive Liberal Party came to power in May 2012, there have been 621 reported murders, according to The Tribune’s records.

Meanwhile, police arrested 13 persons and seized three illegal firearms during several special operations

conducted this weekend.

In the first incident, around 10pm on Friday, a team of officers during a special operation conducted a search of a home on Bowe Avenue, Montel Heights, where they found an unlicensed 12 gauge shotgun.

Six men were taken into custody in connection with this discovery.

Then shortly after midnight on Saturday, a team of officers during a special operation conducted a search of a premise on Lightbourne Street in Yellow Elder Gardens, where they uncovered two pistols with 25 rounds of ammunition. Seven men were taken into custody in connection with the discovery.

Investigations are continuing.

POLICE ARE SEARCHING FOR MISSING 61-YEAR-OLD WOMAN

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama police are searching for a 61-yearold woman of Hunters who has been reported missing.

Inspector Terecita Pinder reported on Friday that Jereen Wallace was last seen on Thursday, May 4, around 10am at her residence, wearing a red shirt, grey hat and long, dark col-

oured jeans. She is about 5ft 6in, weighs between 180 and 200lbs, of medium build with light brown complexion.

Anyone who knows the whereabouts of Ms Wallace or has information regarding her is asked to contact the Central Detective Unit in Grand Bahama at telephone 242-350-3107 through 12, 911 or 919, or call the nearest police station.

JEREEN WALLACE

MURDER TRIAL DATE SET FOR NEXT YEAR

By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A TRIAL date in 2018 has been fixed for a 30-yearold man accused of being the suspect behind a fatal shooting in an inner-city community earlier in the year.

Amal Hunter, alias “Bow”, of Kemp Road appeared before Senior Justice Stephen Isaacs on Friday morning for a fixture hearing into the January 14 death of Kino Kelly.

A date was set for May 14, 2018.

Hunter’s murder charge was brought contrary to Section 291(1)(b) under which it is alleged that he intentionally and unlawfully caused Kelly’s death by

means of unlawful harm.

According to initial police reports, shortly after 9am, Kelly was walking on Kemp Road when the occupants of a blue Honda Fit vehicle approached and shot him before speeding off. He was pronounced

dead on the scene by EMS personnel.

Hunter has denied committing the murder and has retained attorney Ian Cargill to represent him. Cordell Frazier appeared for the Crown in Friday’s fixture hearing.

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PAGE 12, Monday, May 8, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

Nolle prosequis used in cases with little chance of success

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net THE Office of the Attorney General released its 2014-2017 report of its activities and initiatives Friday, revealing steady improvement in its functioning across several metrics.

With respect to trials, the conviction rate for accused persons has steadily increased over the past several years, for instance, rising from 31 per cent in 2012 to 67 per cent in 2016.

The conviction rate for murder was 72 per cent in 2016.

The report notes that there are now ten criminal courts operating in the Bahamas’ Supreme Court, up from six in 2012.

In 2012, the Supreme Court released a list of 100 criminal cases without dates, the report notes.

The Office of the Attorney General responded by reviewing the matter and found 44 more such cases.

A nolle prosequi was entered for 71 of those cases while the other 73 will proceed to trial.

“These nolle prosequis have been entered for matters that have little chance of proceeding successfully, clearing the system of

‘zombie cases,’” the report notes.

Embracing technological advancements, the Office of the Attorney General moved to allow witnesses outside the jurisdiction or in Family Islands to provide evidence through videoconference.

There has also been a transition away from paper documents and photographs, with more use of digital projections.

The technological transformation impacted other institutions that fall under the remit of the Office of the Attorney General as well. At the Registrar General, for instance, it became possible to apply and renew Notary licenses online in 2016, an act that has reduced delays.

In 2016, the Registrar General’s Department also launched the Companies E-service initiative, which allows users to reserve company names, incorporate regular Bahamian companies, order company documents, file company documents, execute searches and pay annual fees, among other things.

The report said: “With the implementation of the Companies E-Service the (Registrar General Department) has seen an increase

ATTORNEY General Allyson Maynard-Gibson. in revenue ments in turn-around July 2016

and improveincorporation times. From to November

2016 the Companies Section collected $7,822,830.50 with the new electronic system compared to only

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff $3,824,920.67 during the The report was created same period last year be- by Joey Gaskins, who works fore the e-service initiative in the Office of the Attorlaunch.” ney General.

JOHNSON: MY MOTHER HAD LEASED CROWN LAND FOR 30 YEARS BEFORE IT WAS GRANTED

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

IN 2010, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham approved a grant of more

than 12,000 square feet of Crown land in the Cowpen Road area for Elsworth Johnson.

Mr Johnson, the Free National Movement candidate for Yamacraw, paid

$5,602.24 for the land, documents obtained by The Tribune show.

The former president of the Bahamas Bar Association (BBA) said his mother leased the land from the

government more than 30 years ago and after years of requesting that it be granted to her, Mr Ingraham approved the grant.

Mr Johnson now has a house on the land.

“My mother had farmed that land for years and was entitled to the whole tract,” he said, adding that piece of the tract was granted in his name at the request of his mother.

“Ingraham took the position that a number of Crown land owners in the Kemp Road area, all Crown land that people who have worked for 30 years, should be granted to them,” he said. “A number of persons therefore got the land.”

Mr Johnson said his mother wrote the Bahamas government as early as the 1980s requesting the Crown land grant and even threatened court action to get it.

“Even for those who qualified, the government did not always give it,” he said. “That’s the reason why over the years I’ve spoken to land reformation.”

Some Progressive Liberal Party supporters have claimed that the Crown land grant now throws new light

on Mr Johnson’s outspoken criticism of the Christie administration during his tenure as BBA president.

The supporters, who did not want to be named, alleged that Mr Johnson was always motivated by a loyalty to the FNM because of what he had received from Mr Ingraham.

However, The Tribune has received no information to substantiate this argument.

“They probably never heard me speak about the FNM,” he said in response yesterday.

Last year, Mr Johnson spoke to The Tribune about land reform and decried the lack of a land registry system.

He said political parties too often use Crown land as a political tool, particularly in the run-up to general elections.

“To my mind, the present circumstances allow a select few to make a lot money,” he said. “It’s beneficial to preserve the present regime, allowing successive governments to use land as a pawn in terms of negotiating with the people.

“It has taken power di-

rectly from the people.

A registered land system (which the Bahamas does not have) would divulge the number of frauds that cause people to be dispossessed of their land.”

During the Ingraham administration, Byron Woodside, then minister of state for lands and local government, led efforts to develop a package of bills that would have overhauled the land system.

The package - the Land Adjudication Bill, the Registered Land Bill and the Law of Property Bill would have created a Land Registry in the Bahamas and given commercial and residential real estate buyers greater certainty that they had good title to their properties.

The bills were not passed and even though the Christie administration pledged its support for such a system, it made no progress toward seeing it through this term.

Mr Johnson said if Mr Woodside were serious about empowering people, he would have done something about the issue when he was in office.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 13

A BUSH fire off Cox’s Way, near East Street South yesterday.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

Residents unhappy over pollution ‘will deal with PLP at the polls’

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net ENVIRONMENTAL activist Shuffel Hepburn said the residents affected by industrial pollution in the five southern settlements of Grand Bahama will deal with the Progressive Liberal Party government at the polls on May 10.

“The PLP government has done great damage to our relocation efforts and the prime minister has told residents point blank that there will be no relocation.

Residents have taken note of his lack of care and concern and will speak to he and Dr (Michael) Darville at the polls on May 10,” he said.

The Pinder’s Point Lewis Yard Environmental Committee has been agitating for many years for the relocation of residents living near the industrial plants.

The group held several pro-

tests and town meetings this year.

In March, Prime Minister Perry Christie said that relocating the residents of Pinder’s Point is not something that his government will consider as no such recommendation has been made to it.

He noted that studies were undertaken in relation to the industrial pollution in Grand Bahama many years ago and more recently by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015.

“The assessments to date have all indicated that people were not in harm’s way,” Mr Christie told reporters earlier this year in Grand Bahama. “(A) recommendation would have to come for relocation. Clearly, when you begin to make an assessment where people are in harm’s way the implication is that you may have to relocate them.

“But if the results say there is no need for that because the incidences of diseases … are not related to the presence of the industrial concern, then we have to take it in consideration.”

Mr Christie noted that the government is concerned about industrial pollution and has brought in the best scientists it can find to conduct studies.

The PAHO/WHO study found that there were no health risks to residents living near the industrial plants, and recommended air monitoring and that a safety risk assessment be conducted in the affected communities.

Minister for Grand Bahama Dr Michael Darville said that government has installed E-noses in the affected communities and has contracted Antea Group, of the Netherlands, to conduct a safety assessment of the communities near the industrial plants.

Mr Hepburn said that government’s relocation of the Lewis Yard Primary School proves that there is a health risk to residents living in surrounding communities near the plants.

He noted that the PLP government started its present term by relocating Lewis Yard Primary from Lewis Yard to the St Vincent de Paul school campus in Hunters.

Mr Hepburn claims that the Hunters settlement is still in the pollution zone.

Last October, the students were relocated from the St Vincent campus because of hurricane damage to the Church of the Good Shepherd Community Hall.

Mr Hepburn stressed that students were again “in the very thick of the pollution and sandblasting sprays.”

“Ironically, this government ends its term by moving the same school back to the same location. The government has been going in

circles when it comes to the residents around the industrial plants and has no idea, nor the will about how to resolve the issues,” he said.

The school has since returned to the St Vincent campus, but Mr Hepburn believes that the relocation of Lewis Yard Primary two years ago, and three other schools in 1988-1989 (Grand Bahama Catholic High and Hawksbill Senior and Primary Schools) prove that there is a health risk to the residents in the surrounding areas.

“The residents, however, continue to suffer, and the students who attend Lewis Yard Primary return to their homes in the affected communities of Pinder’s Point, Lewis Yard and Hawksbill.

“They spend more time back in the heaviest pollution at their homes than they spend in their school.

So how is that a solution?” asked Mr Hepburn.

Members of the Pinder’s Point Lewis Yard Environmental Committee have now formed and launched a new association, the Grand Bahama Environmental Association (GBEA).

“The launch was successful … and persons attending made valuable contributions. We have added a few new persons to our team and are expecting valuable contributions from them,” Mr Hepburn said.

The association, headed

by President Berthram Pinder, is developing a website called GBVoice to expand its reach.

According to Mr Hepburn, GBEA will endeavour to carry out its own environmental study in the affected areas to prove that there is evidence of industrial pollution.

“We will focus on working hard to cause the relocation of the residents,” he vowed.

PAGE 14, Monday, May 8, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

FNM GRAND BAHAMA RALLY HIT BY BAD WEATHER

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

BAD weather forced the postponement of the Free National Movement’s mass rally in Grand Bahama on Friday evening.

Pakesia Parker Edgecombe, candidate for West Grand Bahama and Bimini, and Iram Lewis, the party’s candidate for Central Grand Bahama, were the only candidates that took to the stage before a heavy downpour scattered the crowd of supporters.

Mr Lewis, a political newcomer, said Prime Minister Perry Christie is falling asleep and off in dreamland

while the country is falling apart.

“We can no longer play down the harsh reality that people are hurting – things are bad on Grand Bahama,” he said. “The PLP has failed the nation miserably.

The prime minister and his reckless bunch are the problem and Bahamians deserve better.”

Mr Lewis said Dr Minnis represents refreshing, compassionate and competent leadership.

He said Dr Minnis will be the next prime minister.

The architect and native of Water Cay said Bahamians are ready to embrace real change and vote out the corrupt and uncaring

Progressive Liberal Party government.

In Grand Bahama, Mr Lewis said businesses are closing and young Bahamians are leaving high school with limited job opportunities. He claimed that the government has neglected the concerns of the people and that PLPs are busy lining their own pockets.

“They are making life better for themselves, their families and friends. They are the problem and an FNM government will be the solution,” he said.

According to Mr Lewis, a government led by the FNM will not only create more jobs but also empower Bahamians to become

Thieves take ‘everything’ in break-in at Golden Isles FNM office

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net FREE National Movement Golden Isles candidate Vaughn Miller said he is not ruling out political mischief as the motive behind a burglary at the party’s constituency office for the area.

According to Mr Miller, those responsible for the crime on Friday morning “took everything” from a stocked freezer, a new stove, a gas tank kept inside the building, DJ and surveillance equipment, as well as a new and unused generator.

Mr Miller also said the suspects also vandalised the office.

According to Mr Miller, the discovery was made by an FNM supporter around 8am on Friday. He notified the police and party officials. Mr Miller said the incident is likely to have occurred between 3.30am and 4.40am.

Mr Miller said the suspects appeared to have entered the building through

a window facing the road, which he said was not fortified by burglar bars. Based on the size of the window, Mr Miller surmised that either a child or a “small individual” was able to enter through it.

Considering the various acts of vandalism that have occurred recently throughout the capital regarding the posters of political candidates, as well as the FNM’s Fort Charlotte constituency office being broken into last month, Mr Miller suggested that this latest incident could be the result of political mischief.

“I’ll say this: the first day my billboards went up three of them were vandalised,” Mr Miller told The Tribune.

“Then we replaced them and then two were vandalised. Then we replaced them, so we have to go and check to see if the ones in Coral Harbour have been tampered with. And certainly we would not rule that out.”

Nonetheless, Mr Miller said he and FNM officials

owners in their country. He said the FNM will market Grand Bahama to ensure its success in the tourism sector. He noted that Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, the incumbent for West End and Bimini, has done very little to improve the tourism product on the island.

Mrs Edgecombe, who is challenging Mr Wilchcombe, outlined her plans and vision for constituents.

“As your representative my aim is very simple: I plan to listen to you, and I plan to fight for you in Parliament in order to positively transform our community,” she said.

Mrs Edgecombe prom-

ised to implement a scholarship programme for students seeking higher education, create a trade and vocational school and a new high school. Other initiatives include a multipurpose community centre, research centre, state of the art library and computer laboratory, and reconstruction of the popular Sunset Village, complete with WiFi accessibility.

She will push for a major park and recreation site for families, a much-needed landfill and sport-fishing lodges with a seafood market.

Mrs Edgecombe promised a boardwalk in Eight Mile Rock, West End and

Bimini as well as seawalls to minimise coastal erosion and provide protection of homes, and a football and baseball field on Queen’s Highway west.

“I chose the FNM because I believes it is the organisation that can get the job done,” she said She told constituents in West Grand Bahama and Bimini that they will have a choice on May 10. She said they can expect very little growth from the PLP government, but a better future with an FNM administration.

“We can watch our community deteriorate or we can contribute to its transformation,” she said.

BAHAMAS JUNKANOO CARNIVAL

would seek to take the necessary steps, adding the incident “has not broken our spirit.”

“Matter of fact it’s given us a greater resolve, a greater focus, it’s given us a greater level of strength, energy, and we shall go forward with new vigour,” he said. “And I would like to thank our enemies for doing this, because this has certainly taken our campaign to another level.”

In April, thieves stole a 37-inch and a 24-inch flat screen TV from the FNM’s Fort Charlotte constituency office. They also removed three computers, five computer monitors and two cordless phones from the data room where they were located and dumped them in the kitchen.

Important campaign data was not stolen or compromised, FNM Fort Charlotte candidate Mark Humes said at the time.

It was also reported that the office of the PLP’s Killarney candidate, Reneika Knowles, was also broken into last month.

THE MUSIC Masters song competition winner Valerie ‘Shugah’ Richards is pictured with BTC CEO Leon Williams at Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff BANTANGY in action during the Music Masters contest.

PATRICE on stage during the Music Masters song competition at Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival.

D-Mac and his band pictured performing during Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival.

PAGE 16, Monday, May 8, 2017

JOHNSON NAMED BAHAMAS NATIONAL TRUST PRESIDENT JANET Johnson, a veteran Ministry of Tourism executive, has been appointed as president of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT).

Ms Johnson currently serves as the director in the office of the minister of tourism and has spent 26 years abroad representing The Bahamas in various leadership positions. She was elected and appointed at the BNT’s Annual General Meeting and Spring Council recently.

She now applies this vast experience and marketing prowess in her everyday work managing a variety of

2 SUNDAES

interesting assignments and projects and working along with the minister in various World Tourism Organisation initiatives.

“I am honoured to be president of the Bahamas National Trust,” she said. “Our national parks preserve the unique nature of our islands for Bahamians. These parks are important for biodiversity and serve as outdoor classrooms for 12,000 students annually. The parks also provide tremendous potential for family recreation and to support tourism.

“The staff and the BNT Council see these parks as a

3

destination for visitors to our islands who want to experience their natural beauty.

In order to offer an exceptional visitor experience, we will be working to improve infrastructure and management at key parks across our islands. We are hoping to endear Bahamians and residents to the national parks, and encourage them to support our work by becoming members of the BNT.” At the meetings on April 28 and 29 to elect the council and officers for the year and discuss the business of the BNT, the council reviewed the first draft of the BNT’s

9

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NASSAU

Strategic Plan for 2018-2022.

This year, the elected members of council are Geoffrey Andrews, Glenn Bannister, Alistair Chisnall, Kevin Cartwright, Colin Higgs, Andy Fowler, Lawrence Glinton, Janet Johnson, Pericles Maillis, Neil McKinney, Karin Sanchez, Patrick Thomson, and Barbara Thompson.

The council elected and appointed the officers for the year. They are Janet Johnson, president; Geoffrey Andrews, deputy president; Alistair Chisnall, honorary secretary; and Simon Townend, honorary treasurer.

THE TRIBUNE

THE BAHAMAS National Trust’s 2017 officers: Geoffrey Andrews, deputy president; Simon Townend, honorary treasurer; Janet Johnson, president; and Alistair Chisnall, honorary secretary.