![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/franklyn-snake-wilson-unethical-bahamas-businessman.jpg\" "\\"franklyn-snake-wilson-unethical-bahamas-businessman\\"")
Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis dismissed a suggestion by businessman Franklyn Wilson that the government did not net $200 million when the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) was sold to Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC).<\/p>\n
CWC purchased 51 percent of the company for $210 million plus $7 million stamp tax on the transaction in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas the money not deposited and consolidated?\u201d Minnis asked. \u201cAll you have to do is check; that\u2019s not an issue. Just check the budget.\u201d Wilson is the lead negotiator for the Christie administration in its controversial bid to get back controlling interest in BTC.<\/p>\n
He claimed the only reason the Ingraham administration sold the shares was to get money.<\/p>\n
FNM Chairman Darron Cash said Wilson was talking \u201cutter nonsense\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he and the prime minister (Perry Christie) ought to do, is if they have some information, put it before the Bahamian people,\u201d Cash said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo it instead of this drip, drip innuendo about what the FNM government and what the people on the privatization committee did or did not do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is, Mr. Wilson is a smart man, but he is not the only smart man in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FNM had high confidence and we retain high confidence in the people who were involved in the privatization exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that people worked hard, that they were honest in their dealings, that they made the decision that was in the best interest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson has repeatedly referred to the sale of BTC as a \u201chorrendous\u201d deal, but the government has yet to make public any findings in this regard.<\/p>\n
He said the evidence will be presented \u201cin the fullness of time\u201d.<\/p>\n
Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham offered no comment on the issue when contacted.<\/p>\n
When international credit ratings agency Moody\u2019s downgraded the country\u2019s credit rating last year, it noted that the sale of BTC, among other one-time revenue inflows, \u201cmasked a decline in recurrent revenue in 2011\u201d.<\/p>\n
Source: Travis Cartwright-Carroll
\nThe Nassau Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FNM Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis dismissed a suggestion by Franklyn Wilson that the government did not net $200 million when BTC was sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[36,153,146,168],"class_list":["post-36887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-btc","tag-business-2","tag-cable-wireless","tag-politics-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}