While the Christie administration never revealed, as promised, the so-called "shocking details" of the controversial sale of 51 percent of the shares in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) to Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) in 2011, there is now evidence that some BTC executives were paid handsomely for their efforts in the transaction.
According to correspondence associated with the deal, $1.5 million in total was paid out to executives for their "efforts" in "successfully concluding the transaction".
The payments were made from the Public Treasury, according to documents obtained by The Nassau Guardian.
The payments ranged between $210,000 and $15,000.
The $1.5 million allocated for bonuses for the executives for their efforts was split among 15 executives.
One executive got $210,000; three executives received $150,000; six received $100,000; one got $75,000; three were given $50,000, and one received $15,000.
This is in addition to the salaries of the executives, who were paid an annual salary of at least $99,000.
Prime Minister Perry Christie previously referred to the privatization bonuses as "unconscionable and considerable squandering of the company's financial resources".
The bonuses were paid several days after the Ingraham administration signed the deal with CWC.
Privatization correspondence obtained by The Guardian have the payments under the title "BTC Executive Privatization Bonus".
Then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was advised by the BTC board on April 11, 2011 that "six months salary would be paid to all" except one executive who had recently joined the company.
Several executives were paid above the basic six months, according to the documents.
On April 14, 2011, the treasurer wrote the permanent secretary in the Office of The Prime Minister:
"I have been directed to submit check numbers [X] with respect to payment to BTC executives..."
Ingraham then personally wrote each executive on April 15, 2011 and thanked him or her for the "valuable role played by you and your colleague executives in the government's realization of the recent privatization of BTC".
He advised of attached checks "in recognition of your effort toward this important achievement".
The government's files on the BTC privatization include copies of the bonus checks that were issued to the BTC executives.
For a full reporting on the BTC bonuses, see today's National Review section.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian