By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Prime Minister is being urged to wear his “game hat” for tonight’s Freeport meeting with a business community eager to learn how the $357m demand of the Grand Bahama Port Authority was calculated.

Darren Cooper, proprietor of D’s Car Rental, told Tribune Business he and other Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) licensees want to see and understand “the full layout and detail” of the sum Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority is said to owe the Government for public spending in excess of the tax revenues generated by the city between 2018 and 2022.

Aside from the Government’s dispute with the GBPA, which is almost certainly headed for arbitration proceedings, licensees and members of Grand Bahama’s wider business community will likely want Philip Davis KC to set out his vision for both Freeport and the wider island, as well as his strategy for achieving those objectives and the direction he plans to take.

Mr Cooper and others said it was critical that the Prime Minister, regardless of what happens with the GBPA and its future role, pledge that the Government will not “tamper” with the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, Freeport’s founding treaty, given that this would threaten to undermine business and investor confidence. Updates on progress with Grand Bahama International Airport and the Grand Lucayan sale will also be sought.

The businessman added that the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce-organised dinner meeting with Mr Davis, which is expected to be widely attended, represents a potential “game changer” in relations between the Government and private sector as this is the first time during nearly three years’ in office that the Prime Minister will be directly addressing the island’s business community.

However, in a sign that the event is still being tightly controlled and managed, Mr Cooper and others revealed that all questions that attendees plan to ask Mr Davis had to be submitted in advance by 3pm on Friday so they could be “vetted”.

The Government’s dispute with the GBPA will almost certainly take centre stage, and the D’s Car Rental chief said he would also like to understand the instructions and remit given by the Government to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the accounting firm that calculated the total bill purportedly owed by the GBPA.

“For many of us, we are expecting to understand what the $357m bill is all about. How did the Government arrive at that figure,” Mr Cooper told Tribune Business. “We don’t want the Prime Minister to come and give us the same rubbish as at the local PLP branch meeting. This is the business community, and we want to see the full lay-out and details of where we are. We are hoping to get it.

“We are also hoping to get a commitment from the Prime Minister to more dialogue and communication with the business community; not from the Ministry of Grand Bahama but the Prime Minister. We also want to hear as to the way forward and what plans the Government has for the island.

“It’s a three-fold expectation from the business community, and we hope the Prime Minister comes with his game hat on and be open and transparent with the business community. We are the ones who have been carrying this island for years, we continue to weather difficult storms and have been here for a long time; some as long as 20 to 30 years in business,” Mr Cooper added.

“We need the nation’s leader to come with his sleeves rolled up and be prepared to work with us.... We don’t need to wait this length of time, three years, and are just getting an audience with the Prime Minister. We need better.”

Calling for improved dialogue between the Government and Grand Bahama Chamber, Mr Cooper said it was “very important he lays out” the Government’s objectives and road map for Grand Bahama. “This is a game changer,” he added. “For the first time in a very long time the Prime Minister will be able to meet with the wider business community of Grand Bahama.

“I’m disappointed we don’t have an open microphone. We have been asked to submit questions to the Prime Minister. The deadline was May 3. This is big for the business community. I think it’s going to be a big turnout because so many persons have been waiting on this for so long and there have been many, many unanswered questions for years before even this administration.”

Mr Cooper said he also wanted the Prime Minister to “make known that there are no plans from the Government standpoint to tamper with the Hawksbill Creek Agreement”, and the tax breaks, rights, benefits and other obligations it confers on GBPA licensees, given that it has 30 years left to run.

This was echoed by Terence Gape, attorney and partner with the Dupuch & Turnquest law firm, who told Tribune Business: “Freeport would like to hear the Prime Minister reiterate he’s not going to interfere with the Hawksbill Creek Agreement and also if he could articulate what his goal is.

“I’m hoping he will say his goal is to make the ‘Pink Building’ a Bahamian institution, the GBPA headquarters, but he’s never actually said that. I would have you note, though, that he’s proven his belief that Freeport can be a capital for The Bahamas for investment. It’s a place that can certainly handle serious investment, not like most of the islands, and The Bahamas and the Government need the income.

“That’s really what I’m hoping he will say: That he will state what his goal is. A lot of us do agree that the Port Authority, as constituted, is almost an anachronism because at this rate we’ll be governed by the grandchildren of the Haywards and St Georges in another 20 years.

“Most of us believe Freeport should be governed by a corporation approved by the Government, if not a government corporation. The people of Grand Bahama could vote who is going to be the governing group. Right now we have no control over who is in charge. It’s a roll of the dice.”

Mr Gape said the GBPA’s two ownership families, the Haywards and St Georges, have failed to show “the business acumen” necessary to develop Freeport, its assets and “make a success of it”. He added: “The rest of The Bahamas is generally forging ahead and Freeport is lagging terribly. There is a need for the Government to step in...

“I think the investors here, particularly the foreign investors, would like to have the assurance that the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, because obviously it has some provisions, that it will continue. They will feel more comfortable because the benefits they enjoy will continue.”

Mr Gape, though, backed the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) taking over regulatory responsibility for utilities in the Port area. “The Port Authority itself has shown by selling the airport to the Government of the day for $1 that it had no plans and capital to reinvest, and no plans to restore Freeport,” he added.

“They could have redeveloped the airport and they gave that up. They had a duty to build that back but the Government of the day gave them a pass. Hutchison had an equal duty to redevelop that airport and they were allowed to walk away. Why let Hutchison walk away? It was a major, major mistake.”