Domestic banks tend to shy away from start-up projects. Consumer lending is much safer and more profitable.
Searching far and wide they finally found a South Korean and American group prepared to assist the Bahamians. A South Korean company was found to build the boats.
In addition, the South Korean/American group gave the Bahamians a $2.5 million mortgage to help them with the costs of building the 15-boat fleet. In return, the Bahamians would export their fish to a new market, South Korea.
A source close to the events told The Bahama Journal that Bahamians would man the boats. “They have 80 Androsians to work on the 15-boat fleet,” he said. The official declining to be named, said that there were five South Korean technicians who will be working with the Bahamian fleet to provide technical assistance ensuring that the boats remain in good working order.
The Fly in The Ointment
A Bahamian group establishes itself in the fishing industry to exploit our marine resources. Their South Korean partners have given them an opening into the lucrative South Korean fish market and thus ensure that the Bahamian group will be able to pay off its $2.5 million mortgage. Eighty Bahamian fishermen and their family are ensured work. And there is talk of further investment in a fish processing plant in North Andros.
Before the Bahamian fishermen even had time to ‘go out to sea’ they heard that, the boats had been impounded and their fishing licence revoked by order of Mr. Alfred Gray, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. The reason given by the Ministry was that there was some question about the true ownership of the boats.
The Owners
Mr. Earlin Williams, one of five owners of Netsiwill, the Bahamian company that owns the 15 fishing boats, and who received a fishing licence from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said that the issue is whether there is an anomaly between government policy and funding of fishing ventures in The Bahamas.
He said that Netsiwell had received a mortgage from a Bahamian registered company, Naneka Bahamas Ltd whose shareholders are South Korean and American.
“We have found instances going back to the early Eighties where Bahamian fishing companies have received a first mortgage from the Development Bank and a second mortgage from a foreign source,” Mr. Williams said. He indicated that this form of funding was nothing new and had never prevented Bahamian fishing companies from doing business because they had non-Bahamian sources of funding.
In an interview with The Bahama Journal, Mr. Alfred Gray, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries said that he could only speak to the policies of the Christie government and not on policies of previous governments.
“The policy of this government on fishing is that fishing is reserved 100 percent for Bahamians,” he said. “Based on the evidence before me the legal ownership of the company is not 100 percent Bahamian. Under these circumstances, the government cannot approve or support such activity.”
Asked to explain why a fishing licence, – issuing the licence suggests that the applicant was in compliance with all the regulations and policies – was issued and then revoked, the Minister said that at the time of the application, the officer issuing the licence appeared to assume that because both companies were registered in The Bahamas that they were both Bahamian.
“Once we discovered that the company which had given the mortgage was in fact not Bahamian we had to revoke the licence,” the Minister explained. “By law the mortgagee has title to the boats until the mortgage is paid off. If the boats were allowed to go fishing, it would have violated the government’s policy on fishing being 100 percent Bahamian,” he continued.
The Minister said he was saddened but that the problems could have been avoided if the relevant parties had consulted. “Civil servants implement policy. They do not make policy,” he stated. “A phone call to my ministry and the parties would have known what the government’s policy was at it relates to fishing in the Bahamas.”
Asked about BAIC’s role, the Minister said that BAIC was an agent of the government and as such was answerable to the relevant minister. “Only the minister can pass on government’s policies to civil servants and agencies and their job is to implement those policies,” he said.
The Minister with responsibility for BAIC, Mr. Leslie Miller, declined to comment on the situation. He said he had nothing to say about the matter or about BAIC’s role.
Mr. Sydney Stubbs, BAIC’s executive chairman, confirmed that his agency did in fact contact the Ministry of Fisheries. He said, “We did liaise with the ministry. Not myself but the people here. And I’ll tell you that BAIC has a former director and deputy director of Agriculture, Mr. Godfrey Eneas and Mr. Arnold Dorsett, (respectively), serving on the executive. We have a copy of the relevant fisheries guidelines and at no time did we give advice not in keeping with or what we thought was in keeping with government policy on fishing in The Bahamas.”
He said that it was the practice to maintain and have informal consultations with different government agencies. He said that both agencies were working with the Bahamians to resolve the problems.
A lawyer with a maritime practice told the Bahama Journal that the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries position was basically illogical. He said that it was widely understood that a mortgagee never becomes an owner. “When you convey title to raise money the principle of equity of redemption ensures the mortgagor does not lose title to the property,” he explained.
On the question of the lender(s) citizenship the attorney said he really could not see any difference between the company that granted the mortgage and the Royal Bank granting the mortgage.
“If the Royal Bank of Canada had granted the mortgage wouldn’t the mortgage be owned by non-Bahamians? Are they saying that Bahamians can no longer raise capital from non-Bahamian sources?”
The logic of the position is inescapable even though the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries has said that the government is not in the business of telling Bahamians what to buy.
On the question of government policy, the attorney said that he thought the policy of granting fishing licences only to Bahamians or to wholly owned Bahamian companies predated the present government and that the practices and conventions under that policy as practiced by previous governments would be relevant.
The Minister stated that he was only responsible for policies of the Christie government and that he could not be accountable for the policies of the previous governments. What the Minister appears to be avoiding however, is the fact that implementation of a policy regardless of its origin must be in keeping with the intent of that policy.
Mr. Williams in a follow-up interview said that he was saddened that the government in interpreting the policy in the manner they had were in fact victimizing him. “It seems there are persons within my own organization who do not think I should be in business,” he said.
The Bahama Journal
