By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE Counsellors Ltd yesterday defended itself after a wave of criticism was sparked in response to the planning of events surrounding the christening of the Genting cruise ship and opening of a new Bimini casino last week.

Joan Albury, President of the public relations firm, told The Tribune that although her company did play a role in the planning of the festivities last Friday, they were not contracted to be the sole organisers of the event.

“The Counsellors,” Ms Albury said, “were not in charge of the event. The one example I can give you is that the Counsellors were not in Miami and not one member of the Counsellors was present there. So if we are in charge of an event you would see the team.

“The Business Outlook, is our event and it has been working for years. We have a reputation for doing things extremely well and sustaining things.

“There were a number of different persons involved in planning, but I do want to go on the record as saying that we were not in charge.”

However The Tribune on June 24,  received an emailed invitation from the Counsellors for an RSVP with the name of a reporter. The email outlined a list of events which included details of a charter flight to Miami.

Her response came after Prime Minister Perry Christie told reporters at the Cabinet office that he was unsure of why the government had been receiving all of the blame because the event had not gone off as well as persons had hoped.

According to Mr Christie, Members of Parliament and certain journalists complained to him that the event was poorly organised. 

A team of reporters, slated to leave Bimini at 5pm on  Friday, were forced to miss their flight. 

Reporters were rushed from doing interviews and upon arriving were pushed to the side and did not leave Bimini until around 8pm.

They said Sky Bahamas had no flight manifest and were passed over and ignored while attendants passed out boarding passes to “whomever they wanted to.”

Mr Christie said: “Why y’all blaming the PLP for the Miami trip? We didn’t invite y’all so why y’all did that to the PLP?

“What has happened is I noted criticisms by certain journalists and their disappointment in how the Genting affair was organised or not organised. I was sort of bemused about it because we were invited like the press was invited.

“It is my understanding that the Counsellors was retained by Genting to coordinate the trip to invite the press and presumably to put in place all that needed to be put in place.

“Other people who are important persons in the government felt that things could have been better organised and expressed some degree of disappointment. (But) for me I think I left there really feeling a sense of great vindication over the great effort that we had made as a government to bring about the kind of relief and restoration that the people of Bimini would experience as a result of the development.”