Early last year, we revealed in this space that a company owned partially by former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Minister Darrell Rolle, which received a contract for the female dormitory at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI, was incorporated on April 30, 2013, just in time to land a BAMSI contract.
Dr. Andre Rollins, at the time MP for Fort Charlotte, questioned what experience Rolle and the other principals of the company had in the construction field.
Rollins suggested they got the contract because they were PLP cronies, and he suggested the contract was padded and might amount to an abuse of public funds -- all claims made in the House of Assembly.
We now know that in relation to this contract, as with others, taxpayers got the short end of the stick, just as we had feared.
At the time we first reported on this matter and the cronyism claims connected to it, Rolle strongly denied that his company received the contract due to his political connections. Other principals of the company were Javon Rolle and the late Bishop Sam Greene.
"I've never been involved in cronyism," said Rolle, a former MP for North Andros.
We looked into this matter after Rollins leveled the cronyism claims on the floor of the House of Assembly on February 3, 2016.
At the time of our reporting, then Minister of Works Philip Brave Davis insisted the government received value for money from the contract to Andarco.
He said the contractor, Javon Rolle, "formed a partnership and that is the person with whom my team, my engineers, my quantity surveyors were involved".
More than a year later, the Andarco contract was back in the spotlight in the House of Assembly on Monday night, with Minister of Public Works Desmond Bannister revealing that there was no value for money, and taxpayers were had in relation to this contract.
Bannister said the conduct of the former administration in relation to alleged subcontractors of this project are "prime examples of wrongful acts that may come back to haunt them".
In relation to the Andarco contract, he said, there was no competitive bidding, contrary to the advice of the professionals of the Ministry of Works.
"These well-known construction professionals (tongue in cheek) were awarded a contract of $2.6 million, which had to eventually be terminated," he said.
"They were paid for the work that they had done, but then the former administration took the foolhardy course of paying the people who Andarco said were subcontractors, or others who Andarco claimed that they owed money to.
"This was done without the government deducting those sums from the money that they paid to Andarco, thereby increasing the price of a project that was already being improperly managed.
"Those alleged subcontractors and debtors claimed $1,149,128.56, which is more than one third of the contract price.
"Now, Mr. Speaker, members opposite will say that they only offered those alleged subcontractors and debtors $412,706.40, but they should not have paid them one cent of the people's money, and in the process they let the Bahamas Development Bank absorb a loss when it appears clear that the money that the contractor borrowed from the Development Bank for this project was not used for the purpose that it was borrowed for."
Bannister said, "Those subcontractors would have had an agreement with the contractor, not the government of The Bahamas, and our money should not have been wasted in this manner.
"If the contractor did not pay them, they should have taken action in the courts. Now, the attorney general will have to decide whether to take legal action against members of that PLP Cabinet for misfeasance."
When he made his charge in Parliament, Rollins suggested that such contracts are 'padded' because they have to then be subcontracted.
He smelled a rat in respect of this contract from the very beginning, declaring it "stinks" and "smells very badly".
"Mr. Rolle has said emphatically that he is not a part of any cronyism, and I want to believe him," Rollins later said.
"I'm sure the Bahamian people would like to believe him, because right now it smells very badly. This stinks."
When Rollins raised the matter of this particular contract in the House of Assembly, no government minister spoke to it.
In addressing the issue, Rollins pointed to a press release issued by then FNM Chairman Michael Pintard on January 31, which alleged that a construction company, owned by the former Cabinet minister and a "prominent PLP-linked minister of the gospel" received a "large government contract" for the construction of one of the BAMSI dorms.
"That in and of itself is an example of how public funds are being wasted because the contracts then have to be padded in order to ensure that these individuals who cannot do the work can take something out of the contract to give it to someone who could complete the scope of the work for the amount of money required to complete the job," Rollins said.
"And yet many of these buildings have yet to be completed. And as I said throughout my contribution, they are still unoccupied."
Rolle said he was "shocked" that Rollins was able to make such claims, which he (Rolle) indicated were unfounded.
We cannot say that Rolle landed that contract because of his close PLP ties, but the recent revelations by Minister Bannister demonstrate that taxpayers did not come out on top.
Amid criticisms that the Christie administration issued contracts for BAMSI to 'PLP cronies', then Prime Minister Perry Christie said he was not sure who received the contracts, but he hoped the majority of contractors are PLP supporters.
It was an incredible statement from Christie, who did not help the widespread perception that his administration was fixing up its own.
In light of the cronyism claims made on the floor of the House of Assembly, the government should have fully disclosed all the BAMSI contracts.
But it arrogantly scoffed at demands to make full disclosures in relation to BAMSI -- a program the PLP repeatedly touted as one of its success stories.
Sadly, today we still do not know how much tax money was spent to develop and operate BAMSI.
There has been no full accounting.
But what is coming to light in the House of Assembly in relation to BAMSI and other government programs is cause for great concern.
The revelations regarding how public funds were administered by the Christie administration are incredible. In some respects, they are shocking.
At times, we are not sure if we want to hear more, or if we want the ministers to stop talking.
But deep down we understand it is important for the public to know what has transpired, no matter how painful.

Untenable
Bannister said Andarco was not the only BAMSI contract where evidence of misfeasance is apparent.
Back in 2015, the government was also under fire after it was revealed that the contract awarded to Audley Hanna for the male dorm at BAMSI did not have the necessary all-risk insurance.
There were concerns that millions of dollars in public funds were lost after the dorm burned down.
In relation to the male dorm, 51 subcontractors submitted claims of $551,967.52 in allegedly unpaid bills to the Ministry of Public Works, according to Bannister.
Strangely enough, the contractor claimed that he owed more money to subcontractors and suppliers than they themselves claimed, Bannister said.
He said the contractor claimed he owed them $828,793.03.
"In an amazing case of misfeasance, the former administration offered to pay $220,040.91 to these people," Bannister said.
"One company that did not even make a claim to the minister was offered $28,074.51 and another that did not make a claim was offered $24,124.
"In fact, the amount of money that the former administration offered to people who did not make claims exceeded the amount that they offered people who filed claims."
Bannister characterized the situation as "untenable".
He said the Bahamian people spent $157,515 to demolish and cart away the debris from the burned dorm, and to date, no legal action has been taken against the contractor.
Davis, who, as the then minister of works, was charged with overseeing the development of BAMSI, should be truly ashamed.
Today, he is leader of the Progressive Liberal Party, charged with rebuilding the party and preparing it to seek governance again in a few years.
But he should be seeking forgiveness over these damning revelations.
How does he explain any of this?
Can he?
And why should we even believe anything he has to say in relation to this matter?
In 2015, he misled Parliament, initially stating that the contractor for the burned dorm had insurance.
It turned out not to be so.
Arnold Forbes, who was minister of state in Davis' ministry, later told us that someone in the Ministry of Works would be held accountable for failing to ensure that all contractors for BAMSI had the requisite all-risk insurance.
We are not aware that, that ever happened. We doubt it did.
Davis also committed to tabling all contracts the Christie administration entered into with respect to BAMSI.
It turns out, that was just more talk from a PLP minister seeking to kill an issue.
The matter of these BAMSI contracts is absolutely disgraceful.
It is among the more glaring evidence of mismanagement of public resources, poor governance and lack of transparency and accountability.
Voting the PLP out of office does not seem sufficient punishment for its egregious and condemnable actions while in government.
They should all hang their heads in shame and disgrace as they move around our Bahamas.

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