Marco City MP Greg Moss labeled the government's latest Baha Mar announcement that a committee has been established to oversee the settlement of claims for former Baha Mar employees and creditors "startling".
Moss, the leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP), questioned why the Supreme Court, which approved the agreement the Export-Import Bank of China (CEXIM) signed with the government last week, did not appoint a committee to decide who "justly and equitably" should get paid.

"Why are we playing politics with the people?" Moss asked. "Why did we play politics with them in the beginning? Why did we allow this to get to this point? And why are we again playing politics with them now by having this process through a government-facilitated committee, rather than through a creditors committee appointed by the court to decide who justly and equitably would get paid?

"The political implications of this are startling."

The government hopes claims of former employees will be settled by September 30. It hopes all other claims will be settled by December 31. Claims are being paid by CEXIM as a part of its agreement with the government to complete construction on the Cable Beach project.

Members of the committee are James Smith, a former minister of state for finance; Grant Lyon, liquidation claims advisor to the government; Yanping Mo, representative of CEXIM; Norbert Chan, representative of Deloitte, and Tiger Wu, representative of China Construction America.

Moss said he does not understand why Prime Minister Perry Christie and his Cabinet continue to "pat themselves on the back" and want to be celebrated for saving the project when the Christie administration contributed to the project's derailment.

"This is the challenge I have with Mr. Christie's latest position, that it is predicated on him having solved a problem that he didn't himself create," Moss said. "There was no need for Baha Mar to ever have closed.

"And to have allowed it to close, to allow it to go through a process which inevitably would have resulted in its closing, knowing full well that the winding up act of our country says that upon making any such application to court the business must cease operating; knowing that, allowing that process, asking for that process, facilitating that process and then throwing your hands up in the air and saying 'oh, it is so sad that people have been laid off and contractors have not been paid' is, you know, something I don't understand. It's probably duplicitous frankly.

"And then after having waited so long, after so many people's lives have been affected -- homes have been lost, [the] social structure has been damaged, their financial situation has been periled, to now come back finally, a few months before the end of the year when we go into the election season and say 'we have solved this problem', is to my mind playing with people."

Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware on June 29, 2015. The government made a counter move in Bahamian courts. All of the Chapter 11 cases have since been dismissed.

Despite Christie's announcement of the government's agreement with CEXIM last Monday, the project remains in receivership. The Free National Movement (FNM) has also been reluctant to applaud the news surrounding Baha Mar, insisting that the agreement made between the government and CEXIM be made public.

As a part of the court order, Supreme Court Justice Ian Winder sealed the documents at the request of the parties, preventing public access to them.

Amid criticisms of the agreement, Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts said the FNM has continued to criticize the deal because it was "hoping against all odds" that the Christie administration would not come to a resolution.

Moss rejected this assertion.

"We should all want to see this solved, but this should never have happened," Moss said.

As a part of the agreement between CEXIM and the government, construction will resume next month, the prime minister said.

Royston Jones Jr., Guardian Staff Reporter

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