More than two months after the government and Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) announced a deal to transfer nearly two percent of the shares in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) back to the Bahamian people, the agreement is still not yet concluded and has not yet been tabled in Parliament.
Government negotiator Franklyn Wilson had said the deal would be finalized by the end of March.
He said yesterday the final details were being worked on.
"The lawyers are literally dotting i's and crossing t's," Wilson said.
"The good news, there is an understanding that whenever it's signed, it will [take] effect as of today's date [March 31] which happens to coincide with the fiscal year end of Cable & Wireless."
He could not give a new timeline for when the deal will be wrapped up.
"Given schedules, the prime minister's schedule, the schedule of the chairman of Cable & Wireless, these things have to be done at a time when it is mutually convenient," Wilson said.
The government and CWC announced the deal at a press conference at the Cabinet Office on January 22.
But some critics dismissed the deal as a face-saving agreement as it would not result in Bahamians regaining control of BTC, something Prime Minister Perry Christie had promised on the 2012 campaign trail.
However, Wilson believes the government has already benefitted, adding that there are better lines of communication between the Christie administration and CWC executives.
He referenced BTC's network failure last week and said the company handled the situation better than it did when it had system failures in the past.
"This time they are [giving] public apologies, the chairman of the board is writing to the prime minister apologizing. They are taking responsibility and giving concrete steps as to what they are doing. That didn't happen the first time," Wilson said.
"The fact of the matter is, I think the public can see in those actions already the fact that the impact of the negotiations took place.
"And the outcome of those negotiations, including wider lines of communications going to the office of the chairman, all those things resulted in that response and I think that gives the country a glimpse, we're not there yet, but it's a glimpse to what they should expect from BTC in the future."
Wilson also said CWC has agreed that the majority of the board of directors of BTC will be Bahamians.
"As a result of discussions that took place from the time we announced the memorandum of understanding to now, going forward, the majority of the directors of the Bahamas Telecommunications [Company] will once again be citizens of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas," he said.
"In fact, it had been decided at the time the memorandum of understanding had been announced but it was so late that it was not included in the MOU.
"So both sides decided that we would not say that at that point, but since then that's been reaffirmed and that will be a part of the definitive agreement."
He added: "So now as a consequence, the majority economic interest of BTC is in the hands of Bahamians and the majority of the board of directors will be citizens of The Bahamas."
CWC has control of BTC's board with four appointed directors, who Wilson said are all foreigners, compared to the government's three representatives.
In January, Prime Minister Perry Christie and CWC CEO Phil Bentley signed the agreement to transfer 5,093,200 of CWC's shares to the government to be held in a trust for the Bahamian people.
This trust will be managed by the BTC Foundation, which will be created as part of the deal.
The foundation will also hold all of the dividends and income from the shares.
Christie has said the deal represents a fulfillment of his election promise to regain a majority of the shares for the Bahamian people.
In 2011, the Ingraham administration sold 51 percent of the shares to CWC in a highly controversial move.

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