In February of this year there was a situation in Exuma wherein a company known as Bahamas Morring Company had secured a 21-year seabed lease to install forty-nine (49) separate anchorage/moorage sites spread throughout the Exuma Cays. 

The lease was approved by the Minister responsible for Crown Land but after documents were made public by the media and after some public pushback Prime Minister Davis came to the rescue and ordered a “cease and desist” order, the only puzzlement is that the very same minister that actually signed off on the deal was the same minister that had approved it initially but we will not get into these details.

Cease order on Exuma moorings – The Tribune, February 24, 2025

Excerpt from this article; “An Exuma-wide boat mooring/anchorage deal branded as “insane” by Bahamian marina chiefs has been halted by local government authorities due to the purported absence of key approvals.

Bahamas Moorings Company, which according to documents obtained by Tribune Business has secured a 21-year seabed lease for 49 separate anchorage/moorage sites spread throughout the Exuma Cays, was on Friday ordered to “cease and desist” what the island’s administrator described as an “unauthorised mooring installation”.

The move came after the lease, seemingly signed by the Prime Minister in his capacity as minister responsible for Crown Land on January 25, 2025, sparked consternation, bewilderment and anger among boaters/yachters, impacted Family Island communities and others who all said they were blindsided by revelations of this deal.

Besides raising questions over the Davis administration’s apparent lack of transparency and failure to consult Out Island communities, other observers also challenged why a deal of this nature was not put out to competitive bidding via a request for proposal (RFP). And they queried why the Government had not adopted a different public-private partnership (PPP) model by retaining the seabed and hiring a private operator.”

Today, Prime Minister Davis has had to come to our rescue yet again, as it would appear that his office has paused a contract for $183m dollars for road paving, the only problem being that the contract did not seem to go through the proper procedures, much like the Exuma moorings deal and both times it would appear that even after passing through the Office of The Prime Minister (OPM), Prime Minister Davis had to come to our rescue again.

“Road contract was an error” – The Nassau Guardian

Except from this article, “A controversial $183 million no-bid contract awarded to an affiliate of Bahamas Striping Group of Companies has been “paused” and was included on a recently published public procurement list due to an “administrative error”, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said yesterday.

OPM said Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis halted the contract award before the procurement list was released, adding that the matter is under review.

On March 31, the Davis administration published a public procurement list of government contracts awarded in December 2024 and January 2025 that revealed that Abaco Caribbean” Holdings Limited (ACH) received a $183 million contract on December 18, 2024, for West Grand Bahama roadworks through a direct award.

This revelation elicited criticism from some quarters. Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Dr. Duane Sands said last week the contract should be cancelled and the process opened up to competitive bidding.

Matt Aubry, executive director of the Organization for Responsible Governance (ORG), said competitive bidding should be the standard with government contracts.

The Davis administration was quiet on the controversy until OPM’s statement yesterday.

“The Office of the Prime Minister has completed a review of the decision-making process, and the timelines related to the publication of a list of contracts concluded with various vendors in accordance with the Public Procurement Act,” OPM said.

The statement did not mention the specifics of the contract nor the name of the company it was initially awarded to—referring only to “public discussion” over “a particular allocation” on the published list.

“Contrary to the opposition’s claims of improper motive, the prime minister is satisfied that no improper intent or malfeasance occurred,” OPM continued.

“An administrative error resulted in the inclusion of a contract and a specific allocation that had, in fact, been paused by the prime minister prior to the publication of the list.”

While “the prime minister is satisfied that no improper intent or malfeasance occurred”, the questions still remain; why has this happened twice already and what was the “administrative error that caused this?

The prime minister wishes to have the country believe that he had caught this and had paused this before it was published but after the Exuma incident it would appear that the “administrative error” here is that someone picked up on it has actually queried it; this is my opinion.

So, it would appear the New Day Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government is the very definition of the word insanity; wherein they keep attempting to do the same maleficence over and over and expecting a different result.

Maybe they are hoping that the people are too blinded by their sheer incompetence to even notice.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END