Reluctant to disclose exactly why government denied the renewal of former Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) Chairman Hannes Babak’s work permit, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham would only say their reasoning was valid.
“We found Hannes Babak unacceptable,” said Ingraham. “We came to that conclusion for good, valid, sound reasons and recent events have reaffirmed and reconfirmed to us that he is not a suitable person to be in charge of the port.”
The prime minister was fielding questions from the Grand Bahama media Wednesday afternoon at the Office of The Prime Minister.
It was the second time in less than a week that he addressed the matter which made headlines back in 2010.
It was then that the prime minister told the media in New Providence of government’s decision not to renew Babak’s work permit.
However, no reason had been given.
On Sunday, while speaking to a packed room of party supporters at the Grand Lucayan Resort during the introduction of the Free National Movement (FNM)’s five candidates in the next general election, Ingraham revealed that he and GBPA Honorary Chairman Sir Jack Hayward had met and were in talks to help strengthen the island’s economy.
The prime minister noted that, “Now that he (Sir Jack) is willing to divorce himself from one Hannes Babak, we can do business.”
Babak was forced to step down as GBPA chairman when his work permit expired on December 31, 2009.
“I met with Sir Jack on many occasions. I am delighted that Sir Jack has now come to the conclusion that we could have a chat as we used to in the past that’s uninfluenced by any other considerations,” he said.
“See, for instance, Sir Jack was told a lie. He put it in the newspaper. He said that we had refused Hannes Babak work permit without telling him anything etcetera — that’s a total lie.”
In fact, the prime minister revealed, he had dispatched Branville McCartney, who now leads the Democratic National Alliance, but was the Minister of Immigration, to Freeport to have a meeting with Babak to inform him that the government no longer regarded him as someone who should be in charge of GBPA and, therefore, would not give him a work permit when his expired.
“He had his notice,” said Ingraham. “Hannes Babak was not satisfied with that. He got Sir Albert Miller to call me so he and Sir Albert would come to Nassau to see me — they both came. He wanted to know whether Mr. McCartney spoke for the government or for himself.
“I assured him that Mr. McCartney came to Grand Bahama to see you upon my instruction and he delivered the message I sent that is, that you are not the person we are going to support to be in charge of the Port.”
According to Prime Minister Ingraham, Sir Jack never knew any of that.
“Sir Jack was told something different.”
However, when asked yesterday why his government came to that conclusion about Babak, Prime Minister Ingraham said, he did not care to tell, however it was for good reason.
Asked whether the government considered it an issue of expatriates versus Bahamian, Ingraham said it did not matter.
“Sir Jack could appoint who ever he wants to be on his team, so long as he is a fit person,” he said.” We’re only concerned with who is fit, from the point of you getting permission from the government.
“We can’t determine who you want to appoint as your chairman, we are delighted to support whatever you want to do with your chairmanship, so long as the individual is somebody that we regard as fit to have a work permit in The Bahamas.”
He then laid out the circumstances under which Babak came to The Bahamas.
“See you’ve got to bear in mind Mr. Hannes Babak came to The Bahamas on the basis that he was a monied person who didn’t need to work,” he said.
“He got permanent residence on being able to work in his own business, not to go and work for somebody else as a work permit holder. So he could run his own business as much as he like.”
In the meantime, Ingraham said, the GBPA has some plans for Freeport’s economy which they will announce in due course themselves which government will support.
Freeport has great facilities for attracting investments, he added.
“As Zhivargo Laing indicated before, we are willing to do specific investment promotions for Grand Bahama and we made available a half a million dollars from the government and asked the business community and the port in Grand Bahama to match us and we would take Freeport on the road,” the prime minister said.
Source: The Freeport News
