By KEILE CAMPBELL

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard wants the Davis administration to release the PwC report outlining what the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) owes the government.

He said this could clarify why the administration is demanding $357m. The administration’s demand letter requires the GBPA to pay the money within 30 days or enter arbitration proceedings.

Mr Pintard said he does not buy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’ claim that he has had many meetings with GBPA officials to rectify the conflict between the parties.

He said while his party has several criticisms of the GBPA, he disapproves of how the Davis administration is handling the matter because a public row for several years runs “a very serious risk of undermining investors’ confidence.”

He said the matter has degenerated into finger-pointing and blame-shifting, which does not benefit Grand Bahama.

“Shareholders, they can be fine,” he said. “Government officials, they can be fine. It’s the people, those who live in Grand Bahama and represent those people, they are already experiencing a tough climate and it could get worse given these more recent developments.”

“We believe that in the past, both the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the government have, in a sense, scapegoated each other in order to avoid accepting responsibility for things that they have both been unable to accomplish.”

Mr Pintard argued that if the government succeeded in “wrestling away” the GBPA from the present shareholders, the responsibility to operate the authority should neither go to the government nor friends of people in the government.

“Whether it’s related to power provision, whether it’s related to water, the utility company, whether it’s related to the sanitation, it’s a number of companies there, but people should be able to complete,” he said. “The prime minister should not seek to put into the atmosphere rhetoric or bullying tactics to direct any sale to any particular group.”

Mr Pintard noted that the GPBA earns revenue through service charges, which are reinvested infrastructure, and licenses.

“The government is looking to get an asset that has a lot of regulatory functions as well as a limited amount of assets, and the taxpayer, the same people in Grand Bahama who we represent, will then be on the hook to pay for all of the services, the basket of services and liabilities,” he said.

“And we understand that there’s a fair amount of liability that the GBPA is also holding that the public is going to be on the hook for those particular liabilities.”

He said that he does not believe Grand Bahama residents want the government to take over the regulatory functions on the island and that decisions will be politicized, causing the island to operate at a reduced pace.

“The reality is the government will be on the hook for all of the obligations surrounding Freeport, whether it’s the maintenance and upgrade of the infrastructural development and, in fact, I believe that we ought to work with the government collaboratively to make sure that no resident is in the balance, but all other costs associated with the regulatory environment, the government, the taxpayer is going to be responsible for that,” he said.