By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Christie administration is being accused of leaving residents and stakeholders in the dark over a proposed multimillion-dollar development project off Bimini and of undermining approvals processes through its “shady” reliance on heads of agreements.

Prime Minister Perry Christie announced in Parliament last week that the government is negotiating a heads of agreement with the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) in connection with a $200m cruise project proposed for Ocean Cay, just off Bimini.

“We are negotiating a heads of agreement now that they’re going to put a new destination there, hire Bahamians and as a result of approval they will also start an academy to train Bahamians in Freeport, all of this early in the new year and we will come back with the timing of it,” he said on November 23.

Mr Christie and a government delegation are in London, England and are expected to meet with MSC officials today.

Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, who is travelling with the delegation, stressed yesterday that an agreement had not yet been finalised.

The Heads of Agreement will not be binding. It will be subject to necessary approvals from various local bodies.

However, some stakeholders are concerned that past experience suggests the heads of agreement will supercede relevant approval processes.

After reviewing documents and taking numerous issues into consideration, the Department of Physical Planning will have to issue permits approving the project in accordance to the Planning and Subdivision Act.

As part of this process, the department must receive an environment impact statement from MSC, must notify the public about MSC’s application and must hold public hearings about the project.

For the development to be approved under the law, the Bahamas Environmental Service and Technology (BEST) Commission is also required to review and comment on the environment impact assessment.

However, when contacted yesterday, a senior expert at the BEST Commission said she was unfamiliar with the proposed development, telling The Tribune no environmental impact statement for the project has or is in the process of being reviewed by the organisation.

In addition, Michael Major, director of physical planning at the Ministry of Works and Urban Development, said that his department is not in the process of reviewing anything in relation to the project and was not aware of it.

To some, this suggests that the Christie administration is engaging in its controversial practice of negotiating a heads of agreement on a development project before that project begins the process of obtaining the necessary approvals and permits.

This, critics say, exerts pressure on statutory bodies like the Department of Physical Planning to later “rubber stamp” permits, providing approvals regardless of whether community consultation and environmental impact assessments are done in accordance with the relevant law.

While heads of agreements are convenient as a way of cutting through red tape, the practice, some say, is abused.

It has stirred controversy in the past, with prominent attorney Fred Smith frequently taking the government to task for engaging in it.

“The Bahamas is not a business banana republic. Laws need to be followed in the Bahamas, even if the government tries to lead developers astray through fast-tracking via heads of agreement,” he told The Tribune. “The government attempts to fast-track foreign developers without obtaining the necessary permits. Heads of agreement are contrary to good governance in the Bahamas. Signing heads of agreement in the Bahamas is analogous to a Bahamian development company going to the president of the United States and saying ‘Listen man, I have this incredible idea for this huge development in Washington, DC. Sign this document, which cuts through the red tape, and I don’t have to go to your federal agencies, your town agencies, your county councils, nothing.’ It’s all about cutting through red tape and avoiding all laws.”

Concern

In a statement to The Tribune this week, Dougan Clarke, an American CEO of TUUCI, a furniture manufacturing company with a global footprint, expressed concern about the lack of information surrounding the MSC project as well as what he called its potentially negative environmental impact.

He said: “I own multiple private residential properties in the Bahamas and have been visiting the Bimini islands for the past 37 years…Recently I learned of two separate development proposals about 13 and 20 miles south of Bimini which further threaten the environment and seem to be short-sighted in their value to the local Bahamian economy and local Bahamian labour force.”

He added: “Ocean Cay itself may change . . . the habitat of the surrounding reefs, islands, sea grasses and rock outcroppings that make up this incredibly diverse and sensitive marine habitat.”

Mr Clarke’s statements came a week after Bahamas Chamber of Commerce Chairman Gowen Bowe, in an interview with The Nassau Guardian, called on the government to produce a cost-benefit analysis for the project that considers the employment opportunities that will be available, its GDP impact and the overall contribution such a development would have before agreeing to concessions under a heads of agreement.

Mr Christie has been confronted before about the government’s practice of establishing heads of agreements with investors before consulting residents and gaining necessary permits from statutory bodies.

Last year, controversy erupted when residents of Bimini complained that the government had given Resorts World Bimini permission to engage in dredging and excavation activities without consulting them.

During a rare Cabinet press conference in 2014 marking the second anniversary of the PLP’s election victory, Mr Christie suggested that the government had learned lessons from such controversies.

“(It’s important) that the community is in agreement with what we are doing and that, in particular in the islands where these are new interventions that could impact the way of life of people in those communities, that is a necessity,” he said at the time.

Despite his comments, it is unclear what community consultations his administration has had in relation to MSC’s project before negotiating a heads of agreement concerning it.