By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis does not appear to be concerned about losing political capital over his administration’s decision to enter into a five-year lease agreement with owners of Town Centre Mall, one of them a sitting Cabinet minister, to house the General Post Office, telling reporters yesterday he is doing “what is right”.

Defending the decision, the prime minister said the process will be transparent and debated in the House of Assembly.

Part of this transparency, he said, will feature a declaration of interests from Brent Symonette, minister of financial services, trade and industry and immigration, who is part owner of Town Centre Mall.

But the Progressive Liberal Party has branded the move as a “shameful, naked conflict of interest that no parliamentary or constitutional device or slight of hand will disguise.” PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell rejected the decision, adding the opposition party would not support the move.

Mr Symonette was not present in the House of Assembly yesterday. However, he told The Tribune on Tuesday he knew nothing about the proposed rental of the property. Mr Symonette said he was in Miami, Florida attending a conference.

‘Transparency’

“I think it’s complete transparency and I don’t want to get into any details because they are going to debate it, but I think it’s complete transparency and if you have done due diligence, searched around, the Bahamian public have been without an adequate post office now in excess of three years the matter must be resolved,” Dr Minnis told reporters yesterday. He spoke moments after the resolution to approve the lease was read into the record of the House.

The government plans to begin debate on it next Wednesday.

Asked by this newspaper if the government did not have another option, Dr Minnis said: “I don’t want to get into details because what’s going to happen is more details will come out during the debate, but what you will find out is that at a particular point in time even the PLP had selected the facility and they had also already drawn the plans.

“I believe in transparency,” he added. “I believe in doing what is right and what I feel is right. I believe in improving the quality of life for the Bahamian people. How much longer do you want them to have no access to a post office? How much longer do you want them to work in inadequate facilities and inadequate conditions?”

When asked about concerns of losing political capital, he said: “It’s going to the Bahamian public. The Bahamian public will see the facts.

“Let me ask you a simple question. If Bill Gates was a Bahamian Microsoft with the best possible computers for your country in terms of e-Bahamas and internet systems, and Bill Gates was also a member of Parliament, would you deny the country the use of Microsoft because he’s a member of Parliament when he declares, and you know (he is) the best in taking you to first world status?”

Concern

Mr Mitchell yesterday argued that the Minnis administration sought to reinvent the wheel over the post office’s woes, when the PLP had already done all of the heavy lifting before leaving office.

He raised questions about the rate of $12 per square foot at which the government will lease portions of the mall. He said what has been deemed generous and concessionary may not really be. The resolution notes the landlord will make the facility suitable for operations. 

Mr Mitchell said what this really means is that the owners will come out ahead, having rented a property of depreciated value to be turned into an appreciating asset. This he called “arranging a benefit” for one of its Cabinet ministers. Mr Mitchell also noted a previous controversy ensnaring Dr Minnis, whose company Leechez Investments Limited, which owns Stat Care, had been granted a rental lease in 2005 by the Christie administration. That lease continued while Dr Minnis was minister of health in the Ingraham administration, before ending last year. Dr Minnis has always maintained he declared his interest. 

The Christie administration had looked at relocating the General Post Office to the Town Centre Mall during its last term, but ultimately decided to enter into a public-private partnership (PPP) to construct a new building at the Independence Drive Shopping Centre opposite the mall instead. Tribune Business previously reported that project was placed on hold following traffic flow-related complaints from local residents and concerns over whether proper due diligence had been conducted.

After the Minnis administration assumed office, officials announced it had acquired the old Phil’s Food Services building on Gladstone Road to house the General Post Office. But last month, Transport Minister Renward Wells revealed the government had gone back to the drawing board on plans to relocate the facility.

“The traffic studies, engineering reports, social impact studies, traffic pattern studies had all been completed,” Mr Mitchell noted in a statement. “The PLP decided to assist a young Bahamian, not born in one of the selected families, with a public private partnership (PPP) and preceded to advance the plans in the old Independence Shopping Centre.

“The FNM came along believing their own propaganda and cancelled that project, with significant costs to the public. They announced with great fanfare they were moving to Gladstone Road without checking the facts. That proved to be a colossal error.

“Without so much as a ‘by your leave’ they now announce this resolution, the effect of which is to abandon all that has already been done, waste all the money already spent, with a poorly hatched, cooked up scheme to fix up one of their brothers. It is embarrassing. It is shameful.”

He also slammed the resolution as being “poorly drafted with unnecessary verbiage.”

The resolution seems to deviate from the usual format for this kind of parliamentary document. It noted that the General Post Office building on East Hill Street has been condemned as being structurally unsound and has suffered from periodic, deep-rooted mould infestation and other harmful environment pathogens.

It further noted plans to relocate the facility to a new building at the Independence Shopping Centre were met with “resounding objections and rejection” by residents of the surrounding communities.

It stated the government had acquired the old Phil’s Food Services building on Gladstone Road, but “only recently discovered that the latent (hidden) structural defects and other technical issues would require a massive expenditure of taxpayer dollars in conducting extensive renovations to the entire building which would take at least a year or more” to complete.

The resolution acknowledged a sitting Cabinet minister is one of the owners of Town Centre Mall “who did not take part in the discussions leading to the decision to accept the offer to lease portions of the building, which will be made suitable for the operations of the General Post Office at the expense of the landlord,” adding Mr Symonette has nonetheless declared his interest.

The mall will be rented at a “commercially concessionary rate” of $12 per square foot “far below the going commercial rates” on New Providence, it noted.