A high-profile development on Abaco is defending its track record of hiring local contractors, claiming that the industry has distorted facts to turn public opinion in its favor. Livingston Marshall, the vice president of environmental and community affairs at Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club, said the project has engaged Bahamian workers at every turn. The executive submitted to Guardian Business a series of documents to prove his assertions, including a list of 21 Bahamian firms that have received work through Baker's Bay.
Marshall also submitted detailed notes spanning from May 2011 until July 2011, outlining the meetings and correspondence between the developer of Baker's Bay and the Abaco Contractors Association (ACA). In a letter dated June 2011 to Frank Hepburn, the president of the ACA, Marshall states how the association withdrew its bid to construct a number of houses on the island. He claims the ACA is to blame for not achieving these contracts. "They withdrew from the table," he said. "What they asked for was a non-bid process.
They just wanted three or four houses to build. The process doesn't work that way. It has to be competitive. What they were asking for was unusual." Michael Lundy, Abaco contractor and secretary of the ACA, told Guardian Business that the contracts were "convoluted and designed to frustrate". He said the ACA has participated in a number of high-end projects in Abaco, including Winding Bay. "We've never seen contracts like those before," he insisted. However, Marshall from Baker's Bay felt members of the ACA were simply not complying with the bidding process.
The development has and will continue to work in good faith with local contractors and provide opportunities where the criteria is met, he explained. In fact, according to the list provided by Marshall, the president of the ACA did receive work through Baker's Bay via his firm LV Construction. Other local companies receiving work included Pinder's Plumbing, Tropical Construction, Tropical AC, Caribbean Landscaping, Knowles Construction, Coastline Construction and Abaco Glass. Last week, members of the ACA came out firing concerning a lack of work for local contractors on Abaco.
Lundy estimated that the association is missing out on an estimated 75 percent of the total work being done, with members suffering from a 50 percent unemployment rate. While Baker's Bay is not the only culprit, he singled out the community as a development that could be doing more to change the situation. Baker's Bay is undergoing up to $1.4 billion in total development over the next few years.
It currently hires approximately 400 Bahamians in various capacities, according to resort executives. The Bahamas Contractors Association has since reached out to the ACA and pledged its support. A delegation to the island is now being planned. For his part, Lundy does not dispute the fact some contractors have been hired for the project. He told Guardian Business, however, that "the atmosphere is against us". "We don't want to fight. We just want to work," he said. "We have families to take care of. It doesn't have to be this way. There is enough work for every contractor."
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
