By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

A FREE National Movement delegation led by Dr Hubert Minnis was turned away from the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) site yesterday by security officers who claimed “the farm was closed”.

The delegation – St Anne’s MP, Hubert Chipman, Montagu MP, Richard Lightbourn, North Eleuthera MP, Theo Neilly, Yamacraw prospective candidate, Dion Foulkes, party chairman, Michael Pintard and Dr Minnis – were confronted by BAMSI personnel and informed that they had no clearance to tour the 800-acre site.

Mr Chipman, who was visibly frustrated, said he was “outraged” to be, as he claimed, “put off my property”. He said: “Well the gate was locked, we just walked around the gate. I mean it is government property, it was taxpayers’ money spent on the property so we decided to walk around. We were looking at the papayas and the banana trees and a guy walked up to us and said that the farm is closed on Sundays.”

Mr Chipman said he believed that someone, “maybe government”, had heard that the delegation was there and instructed security to turn them away.

“Now the question is: did someone call him (security) and say that the FNM is down in Andros and that caused him to show. When we first got here, there was no one at the gate. I am going to ask him if I need his permission to go on BAMSI. I have been to the detention centre with the permission of the minister. The difference here is, do I need permission to walk on BAMSI?” This is Bahamian people’s money you’re talking about, this isn’t private property.”

The FNM members were in Andros seeking to tour the $23m site. Last week, agriculture minister, V Alfred Gray led a group of agricultural ministers from CARICOM states to the institute.

Mr Pintard added: “I felt that the gentleman was a bit aggressive. But if there were areas we didn’t have a chance to see during our time on site we had all intentions to go and see it. There isn’t a possible chance that they were going to get us off the property.”

The group was able to see BAMSI’s 12,000sqft, $2.2m administration building, $1.8m cafeteria, eight-room classroom block, both the burnt male and unfinished female dormitories. But they were stopped before seeing the “almost completed” marine zone and “thriving” farming plots.

Security assigned to the farm’s front gate were not present, allowing the group to walk nearly half a mile to the farm land. Once authorities were made aware of the group’s presence they approached them and asked them to leave.

After the initial warning was made, security insisted that they would called the local police. That prompted Mr Pintard to say: “I believe that the police, like us, would be outraged based on how our money is being spent. The lack of co-ordination by the Progressive Liberal Party. The fact that the minister of agriculture and the prime minister are seldom on the same page when talking about the same project. The fact that they have not given us a business plan, that they cannot explain a return on an investment of $100m.”

FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis, who could be seen during the confrontation analysing the crops, admitted that the concept of BAMSI could work, but insisted “only if the site was managed and constructed properly”.

He said: “The concept, I see what they wanted but they have been very poor at managing anything, that has been proven repeatedly. We have asked that, if you are designing any project, you should have a site plan. There still isn’t a site plan. We are talking about farming products bringing down the imported supplies used by the country. You should have a business plan and they have none of that. We have seen no marketing plan.

“This government has bitten off a little more than they can chew. They would have been better served developing a proper agriculture school and programme through the College of The Bahamas and then widening it to this level.”

Dr Minnis explained that, due to managerial and construction issues, BAMSI will fail if changes are not made and a proper direction identified.

Mr Gray last week proclaimed the construction of BAMSI marked a “wonderful day for Andros, for The Bahamas and certainly the region”. He said it was wonderful to see the “thoughts” of Prime Minister Christie come to life, adding that BAMSI was “well on its way to enhancing agriculture in The Bahamas”.