“I do not manage Bahamasair. I was appointed to give ministerial guidance,” the minister responsible for the airline, Bradley Roberts said Tuesday in response to criticisms over his handling of a contract between Scand America and the national flag carrier to operate flights between Nassau and Cuba.
He said also that Bahamasair will publish in its annual report a statement on whether the national flag carrier lost or earned money after suspending, then resuming flights in partnership with Scand America to Havana, Cuba.
The account statement will outline all details of the airline’s performance in 2002, Mr Roberts said, which was something the FNM failed to implement during their term in government.
One of several criticisms Opposition leader Senator Tommy Turnquest made at an earlier press conference at the Party’s Mackey Street headquarters, was that Mr Roberts should have “carefully” checked “the facts” before abruptly cancelling the charter agreement between the two entities, when six months’ notice was required beforehand.
When Mr Roberts announced the cancellation of the contract, he said that Scand America had “duped” Bahamasair through withholding certain information.
However, after Scand America announced that it was seeking legal redress in light of Bahamasair’s “breach of contract,” Bahamasair officials announced that after “consultation” with Minister Roberts, the flag carrier would fulfil its contractual obligations up to June 2003.
In a story published on Jan. 3 in The Guardian, Mr Roberts said that Scand America had not declared its true intent to Bahamasair officials, and, “It appeared in the end…that (Scand America) were in fact after promoting the flights of Americans to Cuba via The Bahamas.”
However, according to a Scand America representative, Bahamasair “knew very well” that the company would be booking Americans through its website for travel to Cuba.
Senator Turnquest had also stated that the FNM was “surprised to hear” Mr Roberts “frankly admitting that the Government had entered into the arrangement without first carefully checking the facts, nor the documentation, and apparently without going through proper channels.”
Mr Turnquest said he found it “even more disturbing” that Minister Roberts authorized the cancellation of the contract without checking the facts and reading the relevant file to realize that there was a six-month notice requirement before the contract could be legally terminated.
“While not surprised by Minister Roberts’ incompetence,” Mr Turnquest said, the FNM was surprised by his “brassiness” after his pronouncements on the performance of former Deputy Prime Minister, Frank Watson, who once held responsibility for Bahamasair.
Since Mr. Roberts assumed responsibility, he said, “no positive changes have been noted,” despite while being in opposition, “he seemed to know all the answers.”
In reality, the Opposition leader said, many believe the airline’s situation to have worsened.
“As Minister Roberts relishes the label of ‘Big, Bad Brad’, I am certain that he will be forthright with the Bahamian people and give a full accounting of the cost of Bahamasair’s ‘on again, off again’ Cuba flights,” Senator Turnquest said. “We shall watch and wait.”
By Khashan Poitier, The Nassau Guardian
