NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The Bahamas authorities says it’s looking for US$357 million from the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) after indicating that “distinct obligations” beneath the Hawksbill Creek settlement haven’t been met, leading to “widespread” struggling for the residents of Freeport.
“The folks of The Bahamas have been paying the invoice for providers which are legally the accountability of the Port Authority. Performing beneath the regulation, the federal government is looking for reimbursement on behalf of the Bahamian folks,” Prime Minister Phillip Davis mentioned in an announcement.
Nevertheless, the GBPA has refuted the declare that it owes the federal government US$357 million.
“The Grand Bahama Port Authority disagrees that it owes the sum of $357 million as claimed by the Authorities of The Bahamas. We reject and can robustly defend towards this declare, which we firmly imagine will likely be defeated,” it mentioned in an announcement.
Prime Minister Davis mentioned that the federal government is working with the worldwide accounting agency PriceWaterhouseCoopers and has ready and introduced an in depth evaluation of the quantities owed, which totaled US$357 million for the monetary years 2018 to 2022.
Davis mentioned that clause 1(5)(c ) of the Hawksbill Creek Settlement requires the Port Authority to reimburse the federal government inside 30 days of presenting an in depth account of the prices related to offering providers and infrastructure which are GBPA’s obligation.
The GBPA has advised the “Metropolis of Freeport, our licensees, and the folks of Grand Bahama” that they “can relaxation assured that the Port Authority is decided to guard our mutual pursuits,” including that “within the 70 years of the Hawksbill Creek Settlement – by means of six authorities administrations – no declare of this sort has ever been introduced towards the Port Authority, and for glorious cause.
“As such, we imagine it will be significant that the general public understands why that is occurring. This declare adopted a latest proposal by the federal government to buy the entire Port group (which owns the Port Authority) from its present shareholders at a substantial low cost. This proposal was fastidiously thought of in good religion however in the end declined.”
GBPA mentioned that having been disenchanted in its try and buy the Port group outright, “it seems the federal government is making an attempt to pressure its desired final result by different means.”
The GBPA is warning of the detrimental results of those occasions on the Freeport economic system and investor confidence, particularly amid the island’s resurgence with two billion US {dollars} in new investments.
“In the meantime, the Port Authority has been systematically handcuffed by central authorities insurance policies and laws over a long time, stopping it from being the one-stop-shop that the Hawksbill Creek Settlement supposed and which different worldwide ‘free port’ areas around the globe get pleasure from.
“Because of this, ease of doing enterprise within the Port Space has been severely eroded, which has diminished its aggressive benefit, and the persevering with lack of alternative for The Bahamas has been monumental,” the GBPA mentioned, including that its shareholders have discovered it essential to repeatedly subsidize the Port Authority’s administration of town from their very own pockets.
“Central authorities’s co-operation is required. Continued hostility in the direction of the shareholders of the Port Authority is counter-productive and pointless. Once more, we urge the central authorities to withdraw its unjustified declare and allow us to collectively resolve the problems in good religion. That is what the residents, licensees, and buyers within the Port Space deserve,” the GBPA mentioned in its assertion.
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