business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2024
$5.60
$5.61
$5.75
$5.60
Gov’t u-turn on Nassau solar bidding deadline By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
• Extends after initial date and turning down move THE Government has performed a u-turn over the deadline by which all bids on • Rejects process integrity the New Providence renewable energy and microgrid fears on offer ‘modifying’ project must be received, it can be revealed. Documents obtained • Wants Bahamians to get by Tribune Business dismajority equity in 3 years close that, prior to the original March 28 deadline for all offers on the up to 100 Mega Watt (MW) initiative to be received, bidders were told that no extension would be granted. One interested party, which asked if “an extension can be provided to the closing date (say, three weeks)”, was bluntly told by the Government and the Energy Committee overseeing the process: “The Government cannot provide an extension at this time.”
The same document, which is a nine-page summary detailing all bidder questions and the Government’s replies, saw another group request the provision of an “updated timeline”. The Government’s response was: “The deadline for proposal submission is March 28, 2024.” However, following the Easter weekend and after the March 28 deadline was passed, the Government changed
its stance and extended the bid deadline until next Friday, April 12, with all parties allowed to enter the Go Bonfire online procurement portal and “modify” their submissions. Gilles Deal, the Government official acting as the contact point for the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, in a e-mailed message sent to all bidders after 5pm on Tuesday, April 2, wrote: “The Energy
NIB’s $240m loss at COVID’s peak By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net COVID-19 has left the National Insurance Board (NIB) facing an “uphill lift” to recovery after plunging the nation’s social security system into a $240m loss at the pandemic’s peak. NIB’s 2021 annual report, the latest on record after
being tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, revealed that the pandemic both accelerated and deepened its existing woes by causing the social security system to incur losses of $51.1m for that year following $188.6m worth of ‘red ink’ in 2020. The combined $239.7m loss, the report revealed, drove NIB’s reserve fund below the $1.5bn mark at year-end 2021 as a consequence of the surge
in unemployment and other benefits paid out to support jobless Bahamians and their families during the peak of COVID lockdowns and other restrictions. This marked a more than $200m drop from the $1.7bn-plus levels they had attained from 2017 to 2019. The 2020 annual report, also tabled in Parliament yesterday, said that year saw “the largest gap between
Committee agreed that the date of closure and proposal due date be extended to April 12, 2024, in respect of the New Providence request for proposal (NPRFP)..... “The Committee further agreed that all respondents be allowed to modify and confirm their proposals.” Several sources involved with the RFP, and/or familiar with developments, yesterday voiced concerns over the deadline extension and how it has been handled, including the ability for parties to now alter the pricing, financial and other terms of their, adding that it raised questions over the process’s fairness. “They were told explicitly: No extensions,” one source, speaking of condition of anonymity, said of the Government’s position up to March 28. “The question was asked at least twice. You can
SEE PAGE B4 contributions and benefits” since NIB began operations some 50 years ago in 1974. With COVID at its peak, the value of unemployment benefit claims payments surged more than seven-fold from $16.3m in 2019 to $107.7m in 2020. The number of persons receiving benefits also increased more than sixfold, jumping from 7,117 in 2019 to 44,182 a year later, due to business closures and employee furloughs in
SEE PAGE B8
PI Crown Land battle’s Privy Council appeal By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamian entrepreneur aiming to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse has “every confidence we will succeed” as he bids to take his long-running battle with the Government before the Privy Council. Toby Smith yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that his attorneys have filed the necessary legal documents seeking the Court of Appeal’s permission to take his Crown Land lease dispute to London and the highest court in the Bahamian judicial system. Speaking briefly to this newspaper, he implied that Sir Michael Barnett’s
TOBY SMITH dissenting judgment in his favour, which split the Court of Appeal, had opened the way to seek a final ruling on his claim that he possesses a legally binding, valid agreement to lease a total five acres
SEE PAGE B11
Gov’t and Opposition fight on GDP growth By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government and Opposition yesterday battled over what real GDP growth that fell below expectations for 2023 means for The Bahamas’ shortterm economic prospects. The Ministry of Finance, responding one week after the Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI) unveiled estimates suggesting this nation’s real economic output expanded by 2.6 percent last year, sought to emphasise the positive by highlighting that it was a growth rate “almost
double the country’s recent average”. It also added that this figure was also “more than twice the Government’s” 1.1 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection unveiled in the recent mid-year Budget, describing the data released by the Institute as “very encouraging”. However, Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, hit back by pointing out that Prime Minister Philip Davis KC said he had expected the economy to grow by 4.3 percent in
SEE PAGE B12
WYNN GOODMAN'S BAY PENTHOUSE
‘Public protest’ not enough to overturn planning approvals • • •
Wynn’s Goodman’s Bay penthouse ‘varied’ in verdict Site plan approval ‘preliminary’; must seek final nod But neighbour’s challenge rejected by Appeal Board
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net PLANNING authorities yesterday modified the approvals granted to Wynn Development’s 14-storey Goodman’s Bay penthouse while ruling that “public protest” is not sufficient to overturn prior decisions. The Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, in its ruling on the challenge to the Town Planning Committee’s initial approval by the project’s neighbour, Edward Hoffer, moved to clean up the process that Wynn must follow through “a slight variation” addressing stages that may have been missed out or leapfrogged. The Board, in its six-page decision, said it was “troubling” that an application for “preliminary support for site plan approval”, which had previously been sent back to the Town Planning Committee after both sides agreed the proper process may not have been followed, was now back before it for a second time as an appeal against “final site plan approval”. Suggesting that incorrect language may have been employed, the Appeal Board said the leap to “final” approval was “inconsistent with the basis upon which” Wynn’s first
SEE PAGE B4