By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Christie administration’s involvement with the Claims Committee it established to administer Baha Mar payouts is limited, committee Chairman James Smith said yesterday, highlighting the independence of the group.

The extent of the government’s influence is limited to having appointed two of the five members on the committee and to giving broad and specific directives, including a mandate to “take care of Bahamians,” he said.

Mr Smith, who served as state minister of finance in the first Christie administration, said the committee will periodically report to the government and to the press, noting that both will be eager for information about its progress.

“The formal government would have stepped back once they came to an agreement reduced to the document signed between itself and the Export Import Bank of China (CEXIM), which discussed the amount of payment, categories of payment and timeframe,” he said.

Mr Smith said the committee will release information later this week informing Bahamians about where they can go in person to discuss the claims process with staff of the committee.

“Either today or the next day a notice will go out to staff about where they can come and physically meet and discuss queries and return their forms,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Smith said while the process for depositing money into a bank account that the Claims Committee will access has begun, the money has not yet arrived.

“The EXIM Bank might have to send the money from four different accounts from different countries,” he explained. “So they have their work to do and we have our due diligence processes to go through on this end, such as providing Know Your Customer information, NIB numbers, signatures, etc. People have to be assured that the money won’t go missing.

“Nothing brought to my attention so far is really out of the norm in this process,” he continued. “But we’ll need to look to the end of the month to see what the performance is against the projections.”

Mr Smith said he is aware of the specific date when the money will be deposited, but he declined to disclose this detail with The Tribune.

Instead he said: “If we are going to meet the (September) 30th deadline (to pay out money to former employees of Baha Mar) then the money has to be there before that.

“It has to happen so we have sufficient time to sign off on claims forms and to check the Baha Mar employee list to see who is on it and what they are owed.”

A source close to the committee said the amount of money to be deposited is “around $100 million”.

The government has said it hopes former workers of Baha Mar will be paid money owed to them by the end of this month while Bahamian creditors are expected to be paid by the end of the year.

In August, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that a deal had been reached between the government and CEXIM to remobilise the stalled resort during a nationally televised address.

He said former employees would be paid monies owed to them and Bahamian creditors and contractors with claims would get a substantial portion, if not all, of what was due to them.