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Volume: 112 No.221
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SEARS’ VISION
SEE SUPPLEMENT TOMORROW
FIGHTING CANCER
NEW MAMMOGRAM INITIATIVE - SEE WOMAN
Call for clarity on Baha Mar
MAN FOUND SHOT DEAD ON TRACK IN EARLY MORNING
By SANCHESKA DORSETT Tribune Staff Reporter sdorsett@tribunemedia.net ONE man is dead and another man is fighting for his life in hospital after two separate shooting incidents late Sunday night and early Monday morning. This latest killing marks the third murder in three days and brings the country’s homicide count to 82 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records. SEE PAGE FIVE
Questions over stamp tax from ownership transfer By KHRISNA VIRGIL Deputy Chief Reporter kvirgil@tribunemedia.net AMID persistent questions on whether the government should have amassed substantial stamp tax from the transfer of ownership of the Baha Mar resort, a noted industry professional yesterday called on the Christie administration to be more transparent in explaining the inner workings of the resort’s sale to quash concerns over the extent of the government’s involvement with $3.5bn development. Before a decision on stamp duty is made, Cham-
ber of Commerce and Employers Confederation Chairman Gowon Bowe told The Tribune that key details need to be clarified and the government should now prepare to be “very explanatory on a lot of the decisions” that have been made on Baha Mar. On the face of it, while it may seem that stamp duty should come into play, Mr Bowe said it might not, given that this situation involved a transfer from one non-resident for exchange control purposes to another non-resident for the same reason. SEE PAGE SIX
FNM DEMANDS DISCLOSURE ON RESORT REMOBILISATION By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
TAKING issue with the “drip, drip” pace of details concerning the remobilisation and future sale of Baha Mar, the Free National Movement yesterday renewed demands for full disclosure from the government. FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis said the revelation of the recent Baha Mar asset acquisition by Perfect Luck Holdings Limited raised more questions than it answered, making the point that the continued secrecy posed a serious chal-
lenge to accountability. For his part, FNM Deputy Leader K Peter Turnquest called for full disclosure of the financial concessions granted to facilitate this transaction, as well as the amount of stamp tax and value added tax collected on this transaction and where those sums have been applied. Dr Minnis also took issue with the fact that it was only “indirectly revealed” that Perfect Luck - through the acquisition – had become the new owner of the beleaguered Cable Beach mega resort. SEE PAGE SIX
HUBERT Chipman, right, at work yesterday helping with clean-up efforts in St Anne’s.
Photo: Tim Clarke/Tribune Staff
CHIPMAN DISAPPOINTED LEADER DID NOT TELL HIM OF RELIEF SUPPLIES FROM NEMA By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net
ST ANNE’S MP Hubert Chipman admitted yesterday to being disappointed that he was not informed by the Free National Movement that hurricane relief efforts had been organised by the government and that supplies were issued to constituencies. His statement came days after Prime Minister Perry Christie told him to resist supposed efforts by FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis
to end his career. Several weeks ago, Mr Christie instructed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to have members of Parliament assemble a team that would help deliver supplies and information to their constituents and to inform FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis of this so he could in turn inform his MPs. “I directed NEMA, based on personal experience, that every member of the Parliament should have a new team assembled, a multifaceted, multidiscipli-
nary team assembled, and to call the leader of the Opposition and advise,” Mr Christie said last week. “[Minnis] had three and he didn’t tell his members. Now I understand there’s infamy here in the ranks, clearly he did not count the member for Montagu and he did not count the member for St Anne’s.” Mr Chipman said yesterday that no one from the St Anne’s constituency association was contacted and informed beforehand. “I was disappointed when I heard what the
prime minister said,” Mr Chipman said yesterday. “I didn’t know anything about the meeting and nothing about it was disseminated to us. I was really disappointed.” Mr Chipman said the failure to have representatives attend the meeting affected his ability to properly address the needs of his constituents. An estimate of between 200 to 300 residents in the St Anne’s constituency need tarp, he said. SEE PAGE TWO
DEPUTY REGISTRAR DENIES PRIVY COUNCIL QUASHES BEING ‘A SISSY OR A PUNK’ MURDER CONVICTION DEPUTY Registrar Ron Pinder emphatically stressed his own heterosexuality as he defended a couple whom he married on the weekend against social media attacks after it was erroneously spread online that the two were lesbians. At a press conference yesterday, Mr Pinder, a former Progressive Liberal
Party MP for Marathon, told reporters that despite speculation to the contrary, he is “not a sissy” or a “punk.” Mr Pinder officiated at the wedding of Alfred and Rickia Pratt on the weekend. Shortly after, a picture of the couple spread
SEE PAGE FIVE
By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
POLICE detectives’ failures to properly adhere to the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s own guidelines concerning the treatment and questioning of juveniles in custody was the reason the London-based Privy
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
Council yesterday made the decision to quash the murder conviction of Shavargo McPhee. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council noted that neither the testimony of police nor the detention record of the then 17-yearold gave an explanation for SEE PAGE FIVE