Investor: Gov’t took four years; GBPA two weeks

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A FREEPORT tourism investor says the Government has done “nothing” to justify or deserve taking over the city’s governance as he described its reform package as akin to “a hostile takeover” of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement.

David Wallace, principal of the Pirate’s Cove Zipline & Water Park, contrasted how it took four years before its investors received a straight answer from the Government rejecting its bid to develop a similar attraction at Arawak Cay in Nassau with the two weeks the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) needed to approve 19 of its 20 requests.

And, besides making the case for Freeport’s present more efficient, private sector-driven investment approvals process, he argued that the Government’s track record in managing and administering Nassau, plus Grand Bahama’s East and West End and other islands, leaves much to be desired and is not what the city’s residents want to endure.

Pointing to the state of loss-making, cash-strapped public utilities such as Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and the Water & Sewerage Corporation, Mr Wallace told this newspaper that the Government has “no role model it can talk or brag about” with numerous taxpayer-owned buildings also in disrepair or needing urgent upgrades.

“I think like many persons who operate businesses in the city of Freeport, who have enjoyed the provisions of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, I don’t know about them, but I was disappointed to hear the announcement that the Government is proposing to now go on in an effort to take…. some would call it a hostile takeover of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement,” Mr Wallace said.

“I listened to the Prime Minister’s remarks, and he indicated that his position with some of these things is non-negotiable. He’s open to negotiating the way forward, but not open to negotiating the takeover of the Grand Bahama Port Authority.” The reforms, if they proceed, will see the Government take back Freeport’s governance powers from the GBPA as part of a new island-wide regime.

Explaining why he is not in favour, Mr Wallace said: “As a business owner and operator I have experienced the Government in terms of doing business where Arawak Adventures and Tours, as the owner of Pirate’s Cove Zipline & Water Park, made an application to the Government, which at the time was headed by Perry Christie, to put in a zipline in Nassau on Arawak Cay.

“For four years we were turned around. We met with every government official from Perry Christie to Khaalis Rolle, the then-minister of state for investments. We met with the minister of tourism, the late Obie Wilchcombe. We met with Sir Baltron Bethel, and no one could have given us an approval for four years.

“We waited. I remember speaking to Mr Wilchcombe several times, and he gave a three-word answer: ‘Consider it done David, consider it done’. When the Government changed, and Dr Hubert Minnis became prime minister, at least this time we got an answer. He said ‘no’. That was the first time we got a response from the Government to do business in Nassau for four years.”

Contrasting this with the treatment Pirate’s Cove Zipline & Water Park received when it switched its focus to Grand Bahama, Mr Wallace said: “When we realised we couldn’t do it in Nassau, we made an application to the GBPA and met with them. Within two weeks of that meeting we had approval to do 19 out of the 20 things we applied for, and had a lease on 7.34 acres of land.

“Within two weeks of dealing with the GBPA.” Mr Wallace then turned his attention the quality of services and public infrastructure outside Freeport in communities such as Eight Mile Rock, West End, Pinder’s Point, Lewis Yard, Smith’s Point, Williams Town, Sweeting’s Cay and McLean’s Town.

“The Government has not showcased its ability to take care of garbage collection in Eight Mile Rock or any area the Government is responsible for,” he blasted. “They ain’t taking over our garbage collection…. I don’t see nothing that the Government has done in those area to say they should be responsible for the city of Freeport.”

Urging GBPA licensees, 80 percent of whom need to approve any changes to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement to “think seriously about the way forward as the Government of The Bahamas seeks to do a hostile takeover of the Port Authority”, Mr Wallace added: “I’m not saying some changes should not be made.

“But the Government has not shown me the ability to maintain anything it has built - every government complex, every government building, every government corporation. BPL, Water & Sewerage are no role models the Government can talk out about and brag about.:

The Pirate’s Cove Zipline & Water Park chief also asserted that the Government’s plans to reform, repeal and replace different parts of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement “are sending the wrong message to investors in this country” over whether their rights, benefits and long-standing agreements could suddenly be subject to change.

Suggesting that the Government may not stop with the GBPA, as “who’s to say they can’t come after Bahamian businesses”, Mr Wallace praised Herschel Walker, the US ambassador to The Bahamas, for “the stance he made in protecting those investors” through Friday’s warning that the proposals signal “the rules can change after you have already made the investment”.

The Government, setting out its position in its ‘Green Paper’ on the reform package, said: “The Government proposes three connected reforms. A Grand Bahama Development Council would co-ordinate and monitor delivery of an island-wide development strategy.

“A structured review of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA) would lead to a comprehensive successor framework, implemented through the amendments, repeals, replacement provisions and consequential legislation that consultation and legal analysis show to be necessary.

“A Grand Bahama Development Act would give that framework legislative form, including concessions for investment across the island and possible enhanced concessions outside Freeport.”

And, setting out its broader policy objectives, the Government added: “The Government’s primary objective is to establish transparent and equal governance and regulation across Grand Bahama and surrounding cays.

“The Government considers that the Hawksbill Creek Agreement is an antiquated, colonial, pre-independence mechanism which has outlived its utility and has created an economic imbalance on the island….

“Arrangements established for the development of a defined Port Area must now be considered against the requirements of an independent Bahamas and the interests of the island as a whole. The Government does not regard the continuation of a selectively privileged governance framework for one part of Grand Bahama as an adequate settlement for the future.”