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‘Path of neglect’: Minister slams BOB Andros cuts By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
ADRIAN WHITE
Montagu Park’s ‘absolutely crazy’ commerce takeover • ‘Free for all’ threat to public space is slammed • ‘Greedy business community’ hit on billboards • Ad signage leaves Nassau ‘like garbage can’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net RESIDENTS and politicians alike are slamming as “absolutely crazy” the excessive commercial exploitation at one of the few waterfront New Providence sites dedicated for Bahamians and their families to enjoy. Loretta Butler-Turner, who helped drive Fort Montagu Park’s
restoration and clean-up when she was the area’s MP between 2007 and 2012, told Tribune Business the location has now become “a free for all” for multiple commercial uses which is threatening “to defeat the purpose of all the work done” with persons “abusing it and doing whatever they want”.
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Sarkis: CCA booked $96m debt as ‘country club memberships’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SARKIS Izmirlian is alleging that the US unit of Baha Mar’s contractor booked $96m in debt owed to subsidiaries and affiliates “under a line item for country club memberships”. The multi-billion dollar Cable Beach resort complex’s original developer, in legal filings with the US federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey, asserted that this and other recent discoveries underscore why the probe into CCA Construction Inc - one of three entities found liable to pay his $1.7bn fraud and breach
SARKIS IZMIRLIAN of contract award - by an “independent examiner” is so urgently needed. That “examiner”, whose appointment has already been approved by the New
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‘Don’t panic’ but brace, hotel workers warned By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net HOTEL workers are being urged “don’t panic” amid fears that Donald Trump’s tariff policies will still spark a major tourism and economic slowdown despite the ‘90-day pause’ imposed by the US president. Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, told Tribune Business that members are being advised to exercise prudence in their spending habits so that they have some savings to fall back on should any negative fall-out be felt during the 2025 second half.
DARRIN WOODS With some workers said to have enjoyed “notable increases in their take home pay”, after the gratuity increases contained in the union’s latest industrial agreement started to take effect during the recent peak winter tourism season,
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A CABINET minister has blasted a governmentowned bank for cutting branch hours in his constituency and further pushing Family Island communities “down this path of neglect”. Leon Lundy, hitting out in his capacity as South and Central Andros MP, said Bank of The Bahamas’ decision to slash operating hours at its Kemp’s Bay branch to just one day per week - while leaving its Mangrove Cay location open four days per week - makes no obvious sense given that the former serves the larger population. Describing the move by Bank of The Bahamas, which is 84 percent majority-owned by the Government via a combination of the Public Treasury and National Insurance Board (NIB), as a “disservice” to Bahamians still reliant on branch banking, he added that it was another example of how Family Islands and their communities are “treated as an afterthought” by the
LEON LUNDY commercial banking sector and others. And Mr Lundy, who is minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, in urging Bank of The Bahamas’ Board and management to “rethink” the move also called for this nation to adopt a new banking “model” based on greater competition. This would involve permitting more Bahamians with the capability to do so to obtain a commercial banking licence. Neil Strachan, Bank of The Bahamas’ managing director, in a messaged reply to Tribune Business
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