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Volume: 118 No.228, October 22, 2021
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Darville says shipment will allow increase in COVID vaccinations By EARYEL BOWLEG Tribune Staff Reporter ebowleg@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas received 57,330 doses of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday, the country’s fourth batch of COVID-19 vaccines through the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility. Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said as a result of the shipment, the country will start to increase vaccinations at various centres. “Not only in the capital of
New Providence or Grand Bahama, but also throughout the Family Islands,” he told reporters. Earlier this month, the government announced that first doses of the Pfizer vaccine would not be offered as of October 18 due to “diminishing supplies”. Asked when first doses will resume in view of yesterday’s shipment, Dr Darville said: “We have our team on standby. We were waiting for them to physically hit the ground. SEE PAGE FOUR
PM JOINS TRIBUTE TO MLK
AN internal audit by Bahamas Power & Light concluded that a consultant who provided makeup services to former BPL chair Darnell Osborne “demonstrated a significant lack of integrity while engaged by BPL” and evidently “committed an act of fraud” against the company, according to the report from the external probe former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis ordered into BPL’s affairs.
The report of FTI Consulting, seen by The Tribune, chronicles the turmoil that resulted in the breakdown of BPL’s board in 2018. However, most of the report focuses on BPL’s procurement practices and takes a critical view of these. The initial board Dr Minnis appointed was dissolved on August 14, 2018. The dissolution of the board came as the body broke into two factions, with CEO Whitney Heastie, Patrick Rollins and Ferron Bethel SEE PAGE THREE
- SEE PAGE EIGHT
CARTWRIGHT CONSIDERING FNM ROLE BID By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net ST BARNABAS MP Shanendon Cartwright said he is considering running for a leadership role in the Free National Movement, emphasising that such a role goes beyond leader and includes deputy leader or party chairman. His comment to The Tribune came a day after Central Grand Bahama MP Iram Lewis announced that he is running for leadership of the FNM. SEE PAGE FOUR
BPL CONSULTANT ACCUSED OF ‘ACT OF FRAUD’ IN AUDIT By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Senior Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net
NAUGHTY: IT’S STARTING TO LOOK LIKE THE SAME OLD PLP
‘DON’T LET VAT CUT WORSEN OUR ECONOMY’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and his wife Ann Marie pose at the foot of the MLK memorial in Washington, DC yesterday during their visit to the US for the 10th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Memorial Project Foundation. Mr Davis is due back in Nassau today.
THE Government must “give comfort” that its planned VAT rate cut will not worsen The Bahamas’ already-precarious economic and fiscal position, former Finance Minister James Smith warned yesterday. FULL STORY - SEE BUSINESS
GOVT URGED TO KEEP PROMISE ON PI LAND By KHRISNA RUSSELL Tribune Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net SAVE the Bays has urged the Davis administration to keep a pre-election promise to cancel any agreement that would result in Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines leasing Crown land on Paradise Island. Apart from one of the Progressive Liberal Party’s campaign pledges to place emphasis on environmental protection, Save the
AN ARTIST’s impression of the Royal Caribbean resort. Bays (STB) reflected on a 2020 pledge in which Mr Davis said that if elected to government, his administration would stop any lease
of Crown land by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) on Paradise Island. It was a declaration that attracted criticism from the Minnis administration when it was in office. Yesterday, a government spokesperson said there was no comment on the matter. In a statement, STB chairman Joseph Darville insisted that RCCL’s project in its current form would SEE PAGE FIVE
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
DIANE PHILLIPS: EMPTY SHELVES AMID SUPPLY CHAIN PROBLEMS
- SEE PAGE NINE