The opposition leader not the only one implicated in the Water and Sewerage Corporation’s scathing forensic audit, there are also accusations that Progressive Liberal Party’s Deputy, I. Chester Cooper might be involved in a conflict of interest.
Auditors discovered that two members of the executive committee – senior and seasoned engineers – had business relationships with the owners/executives of current WSC vendor, Cash N Go a subsidiary of BAF Global which is owned by Exuma and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper.
The Chairman of WSC Adrian Gibson told members of the House of Assembly recently, “These persons jointly hold shares in an entity called Infinity Enterprises Holdings Ltd (Infinity) with the Member for Exuma and Ragged Island. The Member for Exuma is the owner of BAF Global Group Limited and its subsidiary Cash N Go. Now, here’s the kicker, Cash N Go performs bill payment services for WSC, charging a premium for their services—being paid some $150,000 to date!
“Infinity is developing the Southern Dreams subdivision. In 2013, WSC installed the water infrastructure in that subdivision at a cost of $32,000. As if that wasn’t enough, Infinity—whose shareholders are, in part, senior WSC managers—attained a loan from BAF, the parent company of Cash N Go, in 1997. The current balance of that loan is about $430,000 and WSC Executives are among the guarantors of that loan.
“What is jaw dropping, is that we discovered that a current WSC vendor performed construction services in that subdivision and, the proposal for the works that that vendor carried out, was negotiated by a WSC executive on Infinity’s behalf!
“Disclosure of these business relationships either never happened or only happened when approvals were sought,” Mr. Gibson said.
The Long Island MP added that one of the aforementioned Executives was also involved with the Member for Exuma and BAF in another subdivision venture. Negotiations were handled by this executive who was deemed as the paid project engineer/inspector for that entity (from August to December, 2014) and who negotiated with another WSC contractor on behalf of the venture.
The subdivision received a new water main in 2013 at a cost of $13,000 to WSC.
