The revelation that 15 executives of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) were paid $1.5 million in bonuses for their "efforts in successfully concluding" the sale of 51 percent of BTC to Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) has shed new light on the behind-the-scenes activities of the controversial deal.
While much has been intimated by officials of the Christie administration and those involved in the BTC take-back talks, this is the first hard evidence of those bonuses to emerge since the sale in 2011.
It is unknown why the current government did not table the information in Parliament, but chose instead to talk about it in vague terms.
The payouts, approved by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham at the time, came from the Public Treasury.
Ingraham, who had been under fire over the sale, personally wrote the executives to thank them for the "valuable role" they played in "the government's realization of the recent privatization of BTC".
The payments were made several days after the deal with CWC was closed.
The payments ranged from between $210,000 and $15,000.
President of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union Bernard Evans told National Review that some BTC executives privately told union officials prior to the sale that they thought it was a bad deal.
"Some of them under the dark of night told us that they supported our fight, our cause, but they were in a very precarious position. They could not come out publicly against it," Evans said.
"All of them were not pleased with the deal."
Regarding the bonuses, Evans said, "I didn't know until after the sale was done that they were going to be rewarded."
Evans said the union felt that its fight against the deal could have been stronger if any of the executives had come out publicly against it.
"All of us built BTC from the ground, from the CEO down, all of us," he added. " And we all knew we were a beacon in the Caribbean."
Pointing to the bonuses, Evans said, "That had nothing to do with their separation packages when they left."
Several BTC executives left since the 2011 sale. Acting President and CEO Kirk Griffin departed not long after privatization.
The union president also claimed that there were members of the governing party (FNM) who privately told union executives they were against the deal, but they could not come out publicly against it.
In a previous interview with The Nassau Guardian, Franklyn Wilson, who chaired the Christie administration's committee to get back two percent of the BTC shares, claimed the payouts were made under "questionable circumstances".
"One of the points we are making to the prime minister is it is increasingly in the public's interest that the government move sooner rather than later to cause a parliamentary committee to be appointed to firstly learn what happened in the BTC transaction, and secondly to evaluate it. That's our view," Wilson said.
"The prime minister has said that we said that to him and it's for the government to decide whether he accepts the advice."
Wilson said former policymakers should be called to explain the seven-figure payouts.
He has called the BTC deal "horrendously bad".
But while the Christie administration has promised a probe into the BTC deal, it has not delivered on the probe.
Christie and CWC CEO Phil Bentley appeared before the cameras twice this year to announce the government had successfully negotiated a two percent take back of the shares bought by CWC in 2011.
But two months after the government and CWC announced that, that particular deal was finalized, the Christie administration has still not yet made the agreement public.

'Squandering'
When Christie announced the closure of the two percent take back deal on August 29, 2014, he pointed to the BTC privatization bonuses as being excessive.
"Without casting aspersions, I think that most rational thinking persons would reach the conclusion that the 2011 transaction arguably netted the former administration very little money for a number of reasons," the prime minister said.
"First of all, the consideration paid by CWC for the 51 percent stake was reduced by some $7 million.
"Further, significant sums to the tune of several million dollars were spent on a myriad of consultants and advisors, in addition to legal costs to Bluewater, and overly generous bonuses to members of BTC executive management.
"...This could be considered as an unconscionable and considerable squandering of the company's financial resources.
"Added to this, the former government committed to meeting the financial burdens associated with underwriting the costs of the legacy defined benefits pension plan for BTC employees.
"They agreed to endow a trust with $39 million to meet any deficit in the employee pension fund shortly after privatization, but never did. The current deficit of the BTC pension plan is almost twice that amount."
Christie also said that notwithstanding prevailing sentiments for accelerating competition in the communications sector, the former government agreed for astronomical penalties to be paid by the government in the event of any violation of the exclusivity periods agreed with BTC; and legislated the prohibition that the government could not even commence the process for liberalization before the exclusivity period had expired.
"These actions have had an appreciable impact on the country's development. I contend that a process which had the interests of the Bahamian people as its primary motivation would have yielded a more favorable outcome for our country."
Speaking of that 2011 deal, Wilson told The Nassau Guardian many months ago, "We believe the public has a right to know certain things that we now know and we believe the public ought to find it out in a transparent and proper manner."
He noted at the time that a parliamentary committee with powers to send for persons and papers "is a very, very significant instrument".
"Powers to send for persons and papers open up a tremendous route by which to gather information, and that is significant," Wilson said.
He also said at that time that such a committee might help policymakers avoid repeating certain actions that are not in the national interest.
The BTC deal was approved in Parliament by FNM members. The PLP voted against it.
One former FNM member who was high on the deal was Phenton Neymour, who was minister of state for the environment.
Speaking to National Review recently, Neymour said he had no regrets about supporting the deal.
"I don't think it was the best deal, but I believe it was the best option that we had at that time," Neymour said.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian