While confirming that Bahamian workers at Baha Mar would continue to receive their salaries from the government this month, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said it would be "deplorable" for the Christie administration to use taxpayer money to fund the payroll to cover foreign workers.

Baha Mar CEO Sarkis Izmirlian said on Tuesday that the government’s decision to withhold the payment of salaries for the resort’s foreign staff is “deplorable”.

However, the government only committed to paying Baha Mar’s Bahamian workers.

When asked about Izmirlian's assessment, Maynard-Gibson suggested that the developer has it backward.

"I'll respond in a way that someone said to me, a Bahamian voter; it would be deplorable if the government of The Bahamas did use taxpayers’ money to pay foreign employees," she said.

The government is using the money it owes Baha Mar to cover its portion of the rerouted West Bay Street to pay Bahamian workers. In a letter to Baha Mar employees, Izmirlian chastised the Christie administration’s actions over the last month, charging that what was once a commercial transaction has been “usurped for political reasons”. The government committed to paying the salaries of Bahamian employees for July and August, but not the salaries of foreign staff.

“Our number one task this week is to explore ways to be able to pay our expat Baha Mar citizens,” Izmirlian said.

“The government’s decision to withhold payment of your salaries is deplorable and I hope we can prevail on the government to either pay the salaries or allow the debtor in possession financing to proceed.”

Maynard-Gibson, who was not responding to Izmirlian, said the government is committed to looking after the interests of the Bahamian people.

"Again, the interests of the Bahamian people must prevail," she told The Nassau Guardian.

“As I indicated, we are not prepared to allow the Bahamian people to be used as pawns. And so those salaries are coming from money that is owed to the entity."

As it stands, Baha Mar cannot fund its own payroll.

Baha Mar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. District of Delaware on June 29. However, a Bahamian judge rejected its application seeking recognition of the Chapter 11 orders. The ruling means that the various orders handed down by a U.S. judge after Baha Mar’s bankruptcy filing cannot take effect in The Bahamas. Among other things, the U.S. judge authorized access to $30 million in funding, a portion of which was set aside for salaries and severance payments for Baha Mar staff.

Asked if the government would continue to pay Bahamian workers next month if there still is no agreement, Maynard-Gibson said she could not say.

"We really hope that the matter will be resolved and so I really don’t want to go all the way down there,” she said. “It’s conjecture. Let’s hope that the matter can be resolved so that not just those employees, but the many persons that have contracts there and are suffering because they can’t pay their bank loans, and so many others that are depending on this project, will get relief. The interests of The Bahamas’ people is first and foremost in the mind of the prime minister.”