By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Perry Christie said it is “astonishing” that an audit tabled in the House of Assembly asserts that political pressure from an elected official in his administration resulted in a web shop boss receiving a large contract from the Ministry of Finance.

Mr Christie was substantive finance minister and former Golden Isles MP Michael Halkitis was state finance minister when the agreement was handed to Pete Deveaux, CEO of Island Game web shop chain.

Pointing to their roles in the ministry, the former Centreville MP said he was certain there was no pressure coming from his side of the table. The report does not name any former minister.

“I have no idea why they are saying there was pressure,” Mr Christie told The Tribune yesterday.

“It would be astonishing for there to be a suggestion to say otherwise. I was the minister of finance and Halkitis was the state minister. There was certainly no pressure from our side.”

When contacted, Mr Halkitis said yesterday he had not seen the report and declined comment.

The report seemingly sheds light on how the former government doled out contracts during its time in office.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Halson Moultrie laid the report on the table.

It says a $1.46m computer supply contract had been awarded to Mr Deveaux who earned a 30 percent profit margin on the deal.

The revelation was made by former Ministry of Finance Financial Secretary Simon Wilson and disclosed to the auditor general, exposing multiple internal control and procurement failings in the Ministry of Finance.

The report, by Bahamas-based auditing and advisory firm FTI Consulting, found that the contract was awarded to a company owned by Mr Deveaux, chief executive of the Island Game web shop chain, and his wife even though they appeared to have “no prior involvement in businesses relating to information technology or computer procurement.”

Mr Wilson, who remains on leave from his post, told FTI Consulting’s investigators that he was introduced to Mr Deveaux by “a senior elected official” in the Christie administration some three months before signing the April 3, 2017 “lease-to-own” agreement for the computer equipment.

The report said Mr Wilson did not interpret the meeting’s outcome as “an implicit instruction to do business” with Mr Deveaux, but Mr Wilson “tried to accommodate” the ex-minister’s suggestion – adding that such situations were “not uncommon” within government.

FTI Consulting, though, suggested that Mr Deveaux did little to earn his $455,000 gross profit as he and his wife merely acted as brokers in outsourcing the procurement of hundreds of desktop computers, monitors and laptops to a Florida company.

Their Xua Company Ltd, which handled the contract, was likely formed specifically to handle the computer equipment deal, given that it was incorporated on February 20, 2017 - less than two months before the deal’s signing, but after the meeting with Mr Wilson and the “elected official”.

The report revealed that Xua Company was 213 days late in completing its contractual obligations, with the initial shipment “short” and incomplete, and many desktop computers lacking 50 percent of the promised memory capacity.

No rival bids were received, as the contract did not go out to public tender, with Mr Wilson telling FTI Consulting “that leases are never subject to competitive bidding at the Ministry of Finance” - an assertion that was contradicted by other ministry officials.

The report identified other discrepancies between Mr Wilson’s testimony and the ministry’s information technology officials, and suggests that the problems with the contract made have delayed the roll-out of Bahamas Customs’ Electronic Single Window (ESW) initiative that was designed to reduce the cost, time and bureaucracy associated with cross-border commerce.