Ex-Baha Mar director Dionisio D’Aguilar says that he believes Baha Mar is only being completed by the Chinese because the government does not want the initial developer to engage in the bidding process.
Mr. D’Aguilar says that it is his belief that the bids which were put forward were much lower than that of Sarkis Izmirlian’s own, however the government doesn’t wish to give Mr. Izmirlian a chance.
“What I think happened is they got in the nine bids or 10 bids, they were far lower than what Sarkis was offering them. They had no choice, they said these bids are worst than Sarkis but we really don’t want him to get it. So we will finish it is what they said,” he said.
“The Christie administration keeps backing the wrong horse.”
“This man paid off the bank. overtime of course, and said he will pay off the Bahamian creditors and for some reason they just wont go with that.”
Last week during the annual budget communication, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced the China Construction America (CCA) would be finishing Baha Mar.
Disgruntled former staff of Baha Mar in an open letter to Prime Minister Perry Christie requested the prime minister 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 said that there are 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.
Mr. D’Aguilar added that he is now confused as to what the government plans to do with the mega resort as he assumed that the government was trying to sell the resort.
“Why would you suddenly changed paths in the middle of this process and then appoint a contractor. The project has been sitting idle for nine months and now all of a sudden you now decide to pop up and say you’ll finish it? I don’t know what’s going on, I’m confused,” he lamented.
Mr. D’Aguilar went on to criticize CCA and state that they are the reason as to why Baha Mar is at the stalled point its in.
“Their failure to meet deadlines, their failure to meet standards caused the developer to say hey you guys are swinging me and I’m going to stop paying you. They said hey, you’re going to stop paying me, we’re going to stop working,” he said.
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.
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.
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.
