By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT licensee Darren Cooper said licensees are not being used by anyone at the Grand Bahama Port Authority in its efforts to educate people about the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA).

He was responding to comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Frederick Mitchell who has warned licensees not to be used for the personal gain of others who may not have the best interest of Freeport at heart.

The Freeport Licensing Association will be holding an education seminar on the HCA today for its licensees and other interested persons.

Mr Cooper, who is a member of the association, made it clear that it is not being funded or supported by the GBPA.

Last Thursday, during an interview with ZNS, Mr Mitchell said: “I think what licensees and other people of goodwill in Freeport ought to be concerned about is not being dragged into an internecine warfare within the Grand Bahama Port Authority itself.

“They are trying to organise licensees to put up a fight in the public, as if this is the government opposed to the licensees.

“I think that should be avoided at all costs. What should be avoided is the impression given that these people who are supposedly running an education campaign are being used by certain elements for wrong purposes.

“So, I just want people to be very careful about that [and] not get dragged into something they should not get dragged into, so that there is not an unfortunate circumstance on their own reputations.”

There are some 3,000 business licensees in Freeport that enjoy concessions under the HCA. The licensees are concerned over the continued back and forth quarrel between the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the government regarding the port’s obligations under the agreement.

Mr Cooper indicated that licensees want to have a working relationship and be respected by both parties.

“I don’t think there is any licensee that wants to be used by the government or the GBPA,” he said.

“We want to safeguard and protect the HCA that benefits the 3,000 licensees and make sure that the concessions that we do enjoy as a licensee of the GBPA continue to be protected and safeguarded,” he said.

“And so, I think when the minister said to be used, what is being held on Monday and what the Freeport Licensee Association is seeking to do is educate all licensees of their rights, what they are entitled to, and what the actual agreement entails,” explained Mr Cooper.

“We are just seeking to have a healthy, constructive conversation and be able to work in the best interest of GB, to protect all of our licensees, and to fully understand the way forward - what are the government’s and the GBPA’s plans or vision for Grand Bahama and Freeport,” he stated.

“We are not being stroked, encouraged, supported, or funded by the GBPA nor the government.

“These are concerned licensees being able to get to the bottom of where we are and where the government or the port plans to take us.”

Grand Bahama lost nine percent of its GDP last year. Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the Grand Bahama Port Authority has failed Freeport and accused the quasi-governmental entity of not living up to its obligations in the HCA, and would take decisive action on the GBPA.

Freeport attorney Terrence Gape also agrees that the St George and Hayward families, the principal owners of the GBPA, have failed in their duties to promote and cause Freeport to prosper.

“We are now at an economic ‘double bottom’,” said Mr Gape, a leading counsel in commercial matters in Freeport.

He indicated that Freeport’s status has declined from that of a city to a town, with no major hotel, no restaurants, no shops, and no tourism, and a town that has lost a third of its inhabitants.

“The families, who have proven themselves to be good city managers at best, are obviously seeking to delay any progress on their divestiture by at least two years, which delays have served them well in the past,” Mr Gape said.

“Are the licensees now awakened from their slumber because they finally have a Government that wants to do something ‘decisive’. I submit this is a ploy by the families to cause delay upon delay,” he stated.

Mr Gape said: “So, for the licensees, I would expect they would be interested to know that the benefits of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement would remain and that major investors would be welcomed by the government just as they are in the rest of the Commonwealth.”

Mr Gape said the families showed what they were made of and their lack of belief in the future of Freeport when after the airport was destroyed in the hurricane, they joined with Hutchison and sold the airport to the government for one dollar.

• See op-ed by Terence Gape on page eight in today’s Business section.