business@tribunemedia.net
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2019
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MICHAEL SCOTT
Tourism chief blasts drive operator’s ‘rant’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Tourism Development Corporation’s chair has blasted a dive operator’s “self-indulgent diatribe” over efforts to protect The Bahamas from a “vicious onslaught” over recent shark attacks. Michael Scott told Tribune Business that he took “a very negative view” of suggestions by Stuart Cove, principal of Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas, that he and other industry operators had been “thrown under the bus” by the government’s “knee-jerk response” to the fatality off Rose Island and other incidents. Suggesting that Mr Cove was “assuming the mantle of victim”, Mr Scott said the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) had merely been doing its job by acting as “a bridge” between the dive and water sports industry, government regulators and other stakeholders to determine if any safetyrelated improvements were necessary following recent events. Besides seeking to “maintain the highest standards” in the sector, he added that the July 4 meeting convened by the TDC was a critical element in efforts “to ward off and neutralise these unfair media attacks” stemming from shark attack that killed 21 year-old California resident, Jordan Lindsey. Mr Scott said The Bahamas “needs to protect itself from the vicious onslaught” by US social and mainstream media, which he accused of spreading “inaccurate information” and ignoring the far greater number of shark-related incidents that occur annually off their country’s east and west coasts. Mr Cove, in an interview with Tribune Business on Monday, argued that it was unnecessary to summon himself and the Bahamas Dive Association’s (BDA) other 34 members to the meeting because they already had standards and procedures in place to respond to shark bites and attacks. Arguing that his company had overseen “a million encounters” between sharks and visitors over the last 40 years without any problems occurring, Mr Cove said he and other operators were effectively deemed ‘guilty by association’ even though they had nothing to do with the attack that killed Ms Lindsay and were miles away from that location.
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Govt urged: Reclaim BTC for Bahamians By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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RADE union leaders yesterday urged the government “to part ways” with the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) controlling owner after its top executive “insulted” the company’s workforce. Bernard Evans, the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) president, called on the Minnis administration to “cut our losses” and reclaim 100 percent Bahamian ownership after the head of its ultimate parent company questioned the productivity and work ethic of BTC staff. Branding BTC’s eight years under Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) as “a total catastrophe”, Mr Evans told Tribune Business that the carrier’s status as the worstperforming entity within the Liberty Latin America (LiLAC) group was a “reflection” on its controlling shareholder rather than Bahamian workers. Alleging that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) had ranked BTC as the “third best performer” in the Western Hemisphere prior to its 2011 privatisation, behind only carriers in the US and Canada, he said the only reason for its decline could be the “failed” management and policies of CWC and LiLAC. The latter acquired CWC after BTC’s sale. Mr Evans, the former Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU) president, reiterated his belief that CWC had “failed in every
• Union chief: ‘Time to part ways’ with CWC/LiLAC • ‘Cut losses’ as privatisation ‘total catastrophe’ • LiLAC chief unites politicians in condemnation
BERNARD EVANS
BALAN NAIR
BTC HEADQUARTERS aspect” when it came to meeting their pre-privatisation promises to the former Ingraham administration about growing the company. Suggesting that they had only succeeded in “sucking the life out of BTC” by continual cost-cutting and slashing the workforce’s size, the trade union leader added that both CWC and LiLAC had neglected to properly prepare the carrier for competition and the loss of its lucrative mobile monopoly that, at one point, accounted for 75 percent of its revenues. Mr Evans said the
government should now seize on the controversy sparked by a widely-circulated video of LiLAC’s group chief executive, Balan Nair, suggesting there was a “night and day difference” between the “attitude” of Bahamian employees and that of their Jamaican counterparts to seek an alternative partner or ownership structure for BTC. “Maybe the time has come to part ways, cut our losses and see how we can get it back. Maybe it’s time to give us back BTC and let us run it because we were successful prior to the sale,”
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Multi-billion pension deficit ‘high priority, not top’ for govt By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
the NCTU president told Tribune Business. “This has been a total catastrophe. It could not have been what the former prime minister [Hubert Ingraham] and the former chairman [Julian Francis] envisaged, not in their wildest dreams.” Mr Francis, who headed BTC’s Board at the time of privatisation, has previously spoken out about CWC’s failure to grow and improve the company subsequently. LiLAC/CWC have never given any indication of plans to exit BTC, and replacing them would require finding another partner with the international scale and expertise to cope with a rapidly evolving communications market and increasing competition. However, the loss of BTC’s mobile monopoly in November 2016 means that the $210m value placed on CWC’s then-51 percent stake at the time of privatisation will have shrunk appreciably, potentially placing it within range of Bahamian investor groups with the ability to raise the necessary capital and hire a management partner. The Ingraham administration had also planned for the government to gradually exit its BTC ownership via a series of share sales that the market could bear. The flotation of an initial nine percent equity stake, worth around $40m, was mulled but then abandoned
THE deputy prime minister says resolving the government’s own looming multi-billion dollar pension crisis “is certainly a high priority but not top of the list”. KP Turnquest, in a recent interview with Tribune Business, said the Minnis administration was in the process of hiring consultants who would determine “the way forward” for reforming public sector pensions and how to tackle existing liabilities. “We have gone out for a request for proposal on a project to look at this whole issue of pensions again,” he disclosed. “That should be back shortly and, once we’ve done the evaluation on this, we will finalise that and come back with a definitive position on the way forward to reforming public pensions in the future and how to deal with existing liabilities.” Mr Turnquest added: “While it’s not top of the list, it’s certainly a high priority.” He was speaking after a Central Bank survey again highlighted The Bahamas’ looming retirement crisis given that just over 25 percent of the workforce are covered at present by an existing employer-sponsored plan. And that is just the private sector. Michael Anderson, president of Fidelity Merchant Bank & Trust, told Tribune Business that the government had its own “massive problems” when it came to pensions and retirement funding given that no organised scheme currently exists for the civil service.
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Abaco port inspection failure ‘not an option’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN ABACO MP last night voiced optimism that the island’s main port will pass its “make or break” inspection today, and added that failure “is quite simply not an option”. James Albury, pictured, who is also the Abaco parliamentary secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, told Tribune Business he was “confident” based on what he had seen and reports received that the Marsh Harbour port will now meet international security standards. He added that the Port Department in Abaco was now working with shipping industry stakeholders to develop a “funding mechanism”, based on a fee levied
• MP ‘confident’ of March Harbour pass today • Stakeholders working on upkeep financing • ‘Not the first time port has had a scare’
on users, that will ensure Marsh Harbour has sufficient maintenance financing such that its status as an international port of entry will never be in jeopardy again.
Mr Albury admitted that this was “not the first time the port has had a scare”, and said its compliance problems had been “going on for a long time” due to the absence of a consistent revenue stream to underpin essential upgrades. Speaking after Tribune Business revealed that a failed inspection today will result in the Marsh Harbour port’s closure, and derail the island’s economy by halting virtually all cargo trade with the US, the south Abaco MP said both himself, the Port Department and industry stakeholders were “comfortable” the
facility now meets global requirements. “There was the mock or preliminary inspection that took place, which raised a number of items of concern,” Mr Albury said of the June 18 examination. “A list of action items was developed, a lot of them procedural in nature. “There were some procedural changes that needed to happen, as well as physical infrastructure concerns. Since I’ve been aware of that mock inspection and what we were facing, I’ve been working with the Port Controller and a few other stakeholders in the Abaco
port to come up with a list of things that needed to be done. “Essentially, from everything I’ve gotten from speaking to people in both the Port Department and local stakeholders in the Marsh Harbour port, I’m at the point where both they and myself feel comfortable it’s ready to proceed. Everyone is feeling very confident about keeping the international clearance.” Asked about the consequences for Abaco if the unthinkable happened, Mr Albury told Tribune Business: “If it did shut down it couldn’t be for very long. It’s not feasible at this point to not have an international shipping port in Abaco. It’s too important for the local economy and needs of local
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