Are you aware that the Bahamian People actually had to pay a penalty to void the Bluewater deal about which you now state " Bluewater wasn’t tangible, it was pie in the sky, an exploratory offer". We may be entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts my friend.

@SP, I ask for evidence and you give me what appear to be eight trivia questions. Let’s take a cursory look at the facts. Persons with a rudimentary understanding of PE deals would know that the two most important terms in any PE deal are the terms around the economics and those around control. Starting with the economics, the Bluewater deal called for the purchase of 49% of BTC for a total face value price of $260 million. However, to properly understand the economics of this deal we must drill behind the face value price. At the end of May 2007 BTC had over $70 million in cash in the bank, therefore, theoretically this amount should be deducted from the selling price. Further, the Bluewater deal called the payment of $40 million to be deferred, interest free, for at least five years or longer to be paid out of the operating profits of BTC. Therefore, the net cash flow or price that would have been paid by Bluewater would have been $150 million plus the PV of $40 million. This round out to about a total price of about $177 million, Bluewater would have paid for 49% of the equity of BTC.
The Bluewater deal was negotiated before 2008 during the height of the greatest economic bubble in the recent history where asset values were artificially inflated to historic and fundamentally unsupported levels. This was before the total collapse of the credit markets and the worst recession of the modern era. These conditions resulted in an explosion of credit spreads, a global economic contraction, massive consumer and business balance sheet deleveraging, increased global government debt and significant corrections and asset devaluations. Therefore, to properly compare the economics in terms of apples to apples, one would have to make significant adjustments for the material changes in the macro-economic environment.
With respect to control, even though Bluewater was purchasing only 49% of the equity of BTC, the agreement Bluewater had in place with the PLP gave them the power to appoint the majority of the BODs, appoint the CEO and the management team and contained favorable protective provisions that allowed Bluewater to have unfettered strategic oversight, decision making and managerial control over the operations of BTC, without having to pay for it. Further, Bluewater had no operating history, no financials, no background in the Telecomm industry and even today we still do not know who the principals behind Bluewater were.
I recall that when the Atlantis deal was done, the late Paul Adderley also threatened to undo that deal. This attitude speaks to the Sovereign and country risk that companies like CWC and Atlantis face in doing any deals with our pandering politicians. Most people would say that Atlantis has been good for the Bahamas so instead of demonizing CWC and further damaging our international credibility and perception the government should either put-up or shut-up and stop being hypocritical crybabies.

Please share with those of us with little to no common sense, the obvious flaws in the CWC & BTC deal and the ethical and legal breaches that you refer to above that can be rationally surmised.

It would appear that a disturbing pattern has developed whereby senior members of our government, including the PM himself, have uttered negative statements intending I can only presume to embarrass the private sector and foreign investors and then very shortly thereafter asking the same private sector or foreign investors to work with and partner with the government. This approach is immature, baffling and self-defeating and gives the very strong impression that this government is making this stuff up as they go along without an overriding vision or plan. Mr. Mitchell’s first statement about work permits was nonsensical and impractical and every statement after that from him and his colleagues has been equally perplexing. Mr. Mitchell, if you are sincerely looking for a partner to “tackle skills and training deficiencies within the Bahamian workforce”, I would respectfully suggest that you have totally gone about it the wrong way!

Well one way to get the crime statistics down is to not report or include certain crimes in the police reports. If it were not so serious I'd be laughing.

What a waste of taxpayers money this is turning out to be. The mere fact that these auditors at this stage are now considering “new bits and pieces that they felt needed to be shared with the public,” leads me to conclude that the probative value of this report should be viewed with great scepticism. While an auditor may have the skill set and competence to perform a financial audit, an internal controls audit and a well defined agreed upon procedures audit, I am sceptical as to whether they have the skill set or competence to conduct a fact finding enquiry, particularly when it appears that the actual objectives, criteria and methodology have not been properly defined which opens the door for them to be cherry picking which new bits of information they feel needs to be shared with the public.

Please educate me on the UN definition of modern day slavery?

Do you really believe as you state above that, we "give permits to satisfy the laziness and comforts of the few Bahamians who can afford live in maids and gardeners"? This sentiment is not only disingenuous, it is a gross hyperbolic simplification of the issue and further it is contradictory to your first paragraph where you appear to be arguing that Bahamians are not lazy and that we possess the necessary skills and work ethic to perform the jobs foreigners are being granted work permits to perform. Just what is it, are we lazy or not?

Even as the government is directing all governmental departments to cut their budgets by 10%, the PM believes that now is the right time and that building a new Parliament complex and a PM residence to "entertain" are good ideas. Personally, I like PC and think he is a good person at heart, however, he is one of the most out of touch and incompetent leaders I have ever witnessed. He has proven that he can win an election but he has also proven that he cannot govern. PC, it is time to exit stage right with your dignity just barely intact before it is too late.

It is ironic that we do not have the police resources to tackle the illegal operations of less than 10 numbers house franchises, however, we apparently have the police resources to enforce the law against hundreds of otherwise law abiding businesses.