Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner said yesterday that if the government is unable to take proactive measures in solving the Baha Mar problem, the country is at risk of slipping back into a recession.
"This is the greatest failure thus far by this government that truly demonstrates that we are at the weakest position that we have been in as a country economically," she said.
"This is a national crisis that everyone should be engaged in and the driver of this process is none other than the prime minister of The Bahamas, because at the end of the day, the ones that stand to lose the greatest in this whole equation are the Bahamian people.
"And so, the prime minister, who prides himself on putting Bahamians first, on building a stronger Bahamas, on making sure that all of these things are happening, is either asleep at the wheel, either disengaged or totally deluded."
Butler-Turner also said that she does not believe the government was truly proactive in bringing all of the stakeholders to the table to reach a resolution and needs to take serious action to move the project forward.
The Baha Mar Resort announced Monday that it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. district of Delaware and warned that it would have to cut jobs if it does not resolve the matter "in the next few weeks".
"The board of directors has determined that due to the financial consequences of the repeated delays by the general contractor, and the resulting loss of revenue, the chapter 11 process is the best path to provide the time to put in place a viable capital structure and working relationships to complete construction and successfully open Baha Mar," the resort said in a statement.
The $3.5 billion resort has been delayed three times, and Baha Mar CEO Sarkis Izmirlian has charged that its contractor, China State Construction America, is to blame.
Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson announced Wednesday that the government will pay out $7.5 million this month to cover the salaries of 2,400 Baha Mar workers.
Butler-Turner expressed concerns of the government's plan to payout the resort's employee salaries.
"It is only beneficial to them if they are able to get their salaries in a timely fashion," she said.
"Up to today (Friday) I don't know that any of those individuals have received their salaries which were due yesterday (Thursday). And if we have to make any measure of the way the government has handled this fiasco, this debacle, thus far, the question arises how long is it going to take for these people to actually receive this paycheck."
The former deputy leader of the Free National Movement further questioned whether the prime minister was truly blindsided with Baha Mar filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy asking, 'When did the prime minister know what he now knows?'
"I find it incredulous to believe that the prime minister of our country could be blindsided if he were engaged," she said.
"The prime minister knew there were delays in this project and from that point on he should have been more proactive.
"He has not been open in any of these discussions.
"Only after the fact has he even reached out to the opposition in this regard."
She added, "I also find it very difficult to believe that the government of The Bahamas in this time could not have been apprised by its project management team or by the inspectorate in the Ministry of Public Works as to what the positions were and what the timelines were.
"So either they were truly not listening to their technocrats and their experts or they are misleading the Bahamian people entirely."
She said she believes that it is the country's hope and prayer that the resort is still salvageable and that the developer is able to get back on track as quickly as possible.
"I think that we as Bahamians have to bring our collective minds together now to ensure that this is not any longer about Perry Christie and the PLP but about the survival of the Bahamian economy and our brothers and sisters who are highly dependent on the success of this project," she said.
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