A 65-year-old North Andros woman, who has had a government bus contract for the past nine years, is suing the Ministry of Education, claiming that officials there “victimized” her by pulling her contract – because she is a supporter of the Free National Movement – and giving it to someone she claims supports the Progressive Liberal Party.
Adline Wallace said Wednesday that because the contract was “taken from” her, she cannot earn a decent living. She said she has already lost $3,000 since August, when she was advised that she will no longer have the bussing contract.
“I’m still paying the bank for my bus,” Mrs. Wallace said. “I can’t go anywhere to look for a job. I just have to work the farm now.”
Mrs. Wallace claims she will lose about $36,000 this year as a result of losing the contract. She said she was stunned that it was taken from her because she is an FNM supporter.
But Town Council representative Carvel Sargent said Mrs. Wallace’s claims are “untrue” and that she is sending the wrong message.
Mr. Sargent is now bussing the more than 60 children from the Bahamas Agricultural Research Centre (BARC) Community in North Andros to Mastic Point Primary School and North Andros High School .
His mother, Hazel Woodside, was granted the contract after it was taken from Mrs. Wallace. Mrs. Wallace claims that Mrs. Woodside was hand-picked by the Member of Parliament for North Andros Vincent Peet.
Mr. Peet dismissed Mrs. Wallaces claims as “nonsense,” saying that the fact that she held the contract for so long probably means that she only kept it because she was an FNM supporter.
Court documents said, “Hazel Woodside and Carvel Sargent are overt and well-known local political supporters of the Member of Parliament for North Andros and a member of the Government, and the Applicant is not an overt and well-known political supporter of the governing Party.”
Mr. Sargent said he has known for “quite some time” that his mother was going to get the contract.
The new government’s plan is to allow others to get an opportunity to make money transporting the students, he said.
“Instead of one person having a chance to make all of the money, it is going to rotate,” he said. “I think it is fair. If you look at it, under the former government, one person had the contract for nine years. I think that was unfair.”
Mrs. Wallace said her first reaction after her contract was pulled was to call “my representative and I put the situation to him. Then I told him I am going to give this to Carl Bethel. I did this on my own.”
More than five months since he lost his seat to Mr. Peet, Mrs. Wallace still refers to Dr. Earl Deveaux as the member of parliament for the area.
“I am [an FNM supporter] and my family does support the FNM,” she said.
Mrs. Wallace and her attorney, former Holy Cross Member of Parliament Carl Bethel, are asking the Supreme Court to rule that the failure to renew or the cancellation of the contract was unlawful and award her “damages and economic loss” caused by the failure to renew the contract.
In a letter to Mrs. Wallace dated June 14, 2002 , District Superintendent Joel R. Lewis invited her to put in writing whether she was interested in renewing her contract. In a letter a week later, the bus driver indicated that she wished to continue transporting the children.
On August 28, education official Ralph A. Bowe, writing on behalf of Permanent Secretary Creswell Sturrup, informed Mrs. Wallace that, “you have been granted a contract to provide the transportation of students from BARC to Mastic Point Primary School and North Andros High School with effect from Monday 2, September, 2002 until June, 2003, at the rate being paid.”
But a day later, Mr. Bowe wrote to Mrs. Wallace again in a brief letter that said, “Please be advised that [yesterday’s letter] was sent to you in error and is to be disregarded.”
“The contract was breached,” Mrs. Wallace told the Bahama Journal.
Mr. Sturrup said Wednesday he was not familiar with Mrs. Wallace’s situation.
“I’ll have to do the research on it,” he said. “We have hundreds of people in the system and I am not aware of the contents of every letter we send out.”
Mr. Sturrup also said he had reservations about commenting on matters that were before the court.
“We carry out our jobs to the best extent possible,” he said. “I can’t advise on whether a contract was pulled on political grounds because I am not a politician.”
Mr. Carl Bethel submits that Mrs. Wallace was treated in a discriminatory manner by a public officer.
“In reaching its decision purportedly to revoke [Mrs. Wallace’s] said transportation Contract the Ministry of Education failed to take into account relevant considerations such as the opinions of the parents of the children of the BARC community, and took into account irrelevant or improper and alternatively, illegal, considerations, namely the apparent lack of overt and well-known political support on the part of the Applicant for the governing Party and the Member of Parliament for North Andros,” the court document read.
Mrs. Wallace said after she lost her contract, many parents from the BARC Community signed a petition supporting the continuation of her school transportation service. She said the petition was sent to government officials.
“The community got upset and the parents told me ‘Let’s demonstrate,’ and so we were demonstrating for two days,” Mrs. Wallace said.
But Mr. Sargent said he was unaware of the community supporting Mrs. Wallace in the continuation of her contract and he also did not know of any petition being signed by parents.
“I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “And I’ve asked around about this petition and I was not able to find anything on it.”
While Mrs. Wallace claims victimization, she said she was aware of at least one North Andros “FNM” bus driver whose contract was renewed.
“Other FNM’s are working and they pulled my own and they can’t say whether I had a bad reputation or problems taking the children to school,” she said.
By Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
