Disgruntled former staff of Baha Mar in an open letter to Prime Minister Perry Christie are requesting him to not allow China Construction America (CCA) to be the general contractor nor “eventual owner of Baha Mar”.

Past employees of the Cable Beach mega resort say that there Bahamians who are willing to complete construction on the resort and the Bahamas does not need to become a “de facto colony of the Chinese.”

“Prime Minister do not allow CCA to be the general contractor to complete Baha Mar or to be its eventual owner. You are our elected leader. You represent our best interests not the Chinese,” the letter said.

“This is the same CCA that made a condition of its work on Baha Mar the importing of countless Chinese workers for construction jobs that would have normally been given to Bahamians.”

“Lied to you when it said that it would complete its work on Baha Mar on time, then turned around and wrote a letter three days later acknowledging that it needed significant help from its parent company to achieve that target.”

“Lied to the public when it said it would employ a high percentage of Bahamians in its work on The Pointe, only to employ a very low number.”

“Selfishly walked off the job at Baha Mar without any warning in an attempt to extort the project for additional money, at the expense of The Bahamas and its economy.”

Earlier this year former President of Baha Mar Tom Dunlap criticized CCA for giving little attention to the resort.

Mr. Dunlap said that CCA was deceitful towards Baha Mar officials and alleged at the same time that The Pointe may be using the same equipment which was to be used on Baha Mar.

CCA has served as Baha Mar’s general contractor before the resort filed for bankruptcy in the United States last year in June.

Baha Mar has since then accused the company of performing sub-par work.

The letter went on to say that CCA has already “violated numerous government regulations and permitting processes with its Pointe project that any normal Bahamian would be forced to follow without as much as a slap on the wrist” and also CCA has “Performed shaddy work on Baha Mar, proudly taking shortcuts wherever they have been able.”

The letter also alleged that CCA overcharged Baha Mar by millions of dollars for work it did not complete, all while its executives used their ability to expense items to travel to New York City and buy luxury goods, instead of completing the project as they had promised.
Director of external affairs for The Pointe Leslie Pindling, last month noted that the property is paying great detail to the heads of agreement signed with the government which allowed for 70 per cent Bahamian workers and 30 per cent Chinese.

However he later on told reporters that the agreement only required 60 percent Chinese workers and 40 per cent Bahamians during the development’s or start-up construction.

Last month mr. Dunlap also said he demands a probe into CCA’s “highly irregular expenses” claims after an electronic copy of the memo was found on a computer used by the assistant of CCA president Tiger Wu.

“For over a year, thousands of Bahamians have seen Baha Mar from an angle they did not expect: from the outside, looking in. We were meant to be working at the larger-than-life resort, using the training we received to boost the tourism and economy of the Bahamas,” the letter said.

“Instead, we are reading headlines that the resort’s previous general contractor, China Construction America (“CCA”), is in the running to both bid for the project as well as begin work on the project before a bidder has been chosen. Yes, that is the same CCA that has proven to be a serial bad actor in its dealings in the Bahamas and certainly at Baha Mar.”

Displeased former workers said that there are Bahamians who are ready to work and willing to complete construction.

“We already have proof that at CCA projects, there are less jobs for Bahamians. Less Bahamians at work mean more Chinese at work. More Chinese at work means that dollars that should be going into our economy will be potentially taken out and shipped across seas,” they said.

Earlier this month ex-Baha Mar director Dionisio D’Aguilar said that he fears that CCA will be chosen as the “preferred bidder” due to the fact that it is a “sister company” of its protected creditor.

According to a receiver of Baha Mar, ray Winder, 16 groups have expressed interest in acquiring Baha Mar at the Supreme Court hearing on the project’s joint provisional liquidation, however he refused to identify the investors.

Justice Ian Winder earlier this month approved a five-month delay to the Government’s Baha Mar winding-up petition, in a move to give the ongoing sales process time to be sorted out. The current sales process has attracted 16 prospective buyers.

The opening of the Cable beach mega was scheduled for December 2014, but was deferred to March 2015 and again to May 2015.

Baha Mar’s developer filed for bankruptcy protection in the US on June 29, 2015, however the Supreme Court then rejected the resorts application so that the matter may be recognized in The Bahamas.

Baha Mar went into receivership last October.