Financial Services and Investments Minister Vincent Peet on Monday named the consultant in his ministry who heads the recently formed Oversight Committee tasked with ensuring that heads of agreements signed between the government and foreign investors are followed.
That consultant is Bahamian attorney Joyann Jibrilu, and other senior government personnel, including Dr. Baltron Bethel of the Hotel Corporation of The Bahamas and personnel from the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance are committee members.
The minister ﾖ while pointing out that its purpose is not to stop investment, but to monitor investment ﾖ explained that the committee would have the power to stop projects that are proceeding contrary to the heads of agreement.
“They represent the government, which means that they have the authority of the government to say to people that the (terms of the heads of agreement) are not being met; we need to sit down, stop what youﾒre doing here, letﾒs sit and review this. Letﾒs correct, let’s find what the problem is, let’s deal with it,” Mr. Peet said.
Mr. Peet explained why the committee would have that power.
“The committee will have that power because if there are conditions in the heads of agreement that are not being met, this committee is authorized by the government, (these are) senior government officials who form this committee. They’ll be mandated to (demand an explanation from the developer as to why things are not proceeding according to the heads of agreement),” he said.
“These are not rookies; these are folks who understand the importance of investment, so their job is not to stop investment; their job is to monitor and to ensure it’s done properly, and as part of that exercise, they’ll be able to (demand explanations from the investor). Maybe thereﾒs a justification for why things might not be moving as fast as we want.”
Mr. Peet said the committee would also be able to call town meetings to have community input on concerns about investments and address those concerns. The committee will be accessible to the community and the investor, he said, for advice or expressing any concerns.
The goal of this committee is to ensure that the projects are done “correctly,” according to the minister, along the lines of the heads of agreement.
He pointed out that the government is interested in monitoring the large projects, which he said “are the ones we are really monitoring to ensure that the conditions of the heads of agreements are honoured when it relates to Bahamians being employed, small businesses to be created and that type of thing.”
The committee, the minister told the Journal, is monitoring the projects from every aspect to ensure that “the revenue part of (the project) is moving, the actual concessionary part of it would be moving provided they are doing what they are supposed to do, and to ensure that we can see the staged development.”
Mr. Peet said that if there are problems as these projects progress, this committee would “correct those problems.”
“As we move into the next stage, we would be able to start reporting, but at this stage we have established the committee, we have the members, the preliminary work has started,” he said.
“There was work being done all along, but it hasnﾒt been focused in terms of making sure that we know how fast the projects would be going, and that we could answer, in very short order, the state,” the minister acknowledged.
“There were sort of quarterly reports or every other month reports being done on projects. We are now going to the next level to ensure that we will be able to have more accurate information and as this committee works even more and becomes even more entrenched in their work, weﾒll have even better information.”
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
