“GBPA Must Live Up to Contractual Obligations” – The Bahama Journal – 16th August 18, 2024

Welcome back, let us look at what’s happening as we take a close look tonight at a brewing political and legal storm brewing in Grand Bahama.

 “GBPA Must Live UP To Contractual Obligations” The Bahama Journal, excerpt from this article

“Prime Minister Philip Davis continues to hold nothing back in his quest to persuade or force the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) to do more than it is currently doing to help revive the City of Freeport and, by extension, much of Grand Bahama.

While attending the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) Grand Bahama men’s and women’s branches installation ceremony over the weekend, the Prime Minister said that the GBPA must do a better job of running the city for residents as mandated in the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA).

‘Understand this,’ he said, ‘that is why we are doing something that no previous government has done before: we are insisting that the Grand Bahama Port Authority live up to their contractual obligations.’

‘The Port Authority has received concessions under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement worth millions of dollars. So, let’s admit what we all know, the politicians of the past were too timid, too deferential, too unwilling to hold the Port Authority to account,’ said PM Davis.

The Prime Minister says the Government will no longer subsidize private entities on the back of Bahamian taxpayers. He was also critical of the official opposition for not standing up to the GBPA on behalf of the Bahamian people.”

Let’s break this down, shall we?

First, it must be made clear that the Official Opposition was not and is not going against the people, but simply following the law, as it seems that Prime Minister Davis is finally seeking to do.

Is the prime minister attempting to backpedal as he now admits to the fact that the Hawksbill Agreement (HBA) is actually a legal contract? And I do agree with him that the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) has not been living up to their contractual obligations as per the Agreement, but why was it necessary for him to mislead the public in the first place?

As stated by the leader of the opposition, the Hon. Michael Pintard, GBPA is not just any entity; it is, by virtue of its contract, the regulator of all utilities in Grand Bahama, especially the city of Freeport. There has been no amendment made to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA) nor the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) conceding power of the government to allow for the takeover of these regulations by the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA).

It is a well-known fact that the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA) gave special provisions to the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) that the New Day Davis administration now claims that the Electrical Act 2024 gives to URCA. In my opinion, only a lazy, incompetent, and inept government would not have given special consideration to these provisions.

I carry no water for the GBPA and as I have said before, I agree with the prime minister that they have to live up to their contractual obligations. But until we all realize that there is a legal contract in place which cannot simply be set aside by legislation that does not include all stakeholders is a legal affront to the whole situation brewing in Freeport and Grand Bahama on the whole.

It would do well if the government treated the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA) as a legal and binding document that can only be updated by amendment that includes all of its stakeholders, which includes business holders in the Freeport area.

And only then can this issue move forward in a sensible manner.

The PLP fails for one reason: it is their nature.

END