With over $200 million awarded in contracts during the Progressive Liberal Party’s administration, Minister of Works Desmond Bannister said that the Free National Movement’s administration is working on changing the process for negotiating, bidding, and awarding contracts.

“Under the former administration they had over $200 million in negotiated contracts that were just negotiated out.

“There was no process where persons could come in and bid on contracts; they were simply negotiated to I guess, political supporters and other individuals; that’s over $200 million.

“We are seeking to change that process, so that the process is more transparent, and the process is inured to the benefit of Bahamians,” Mr. Bannister said.

As for what the public can look  to  moving forward, Mr. Bannister said that many things will happen, and the process will be improved, alluding to a major project that the government will soon embark upon.

“When we change that process, you are going to see lots of things happening.

“So, for example I was in Eleuthera the other day and we may have to spend anywhere from $10 million to almost $40 million to replace a bridge that is critical for Eleuthera and which is critical for tourism,” Mr. Bannister said.

Mr. Bannister stated that once the process is revamped, Bahamians will see more value for their money.

“When we change the process for negotiating contracts and people have to bid on the process, you’re going to see more value for the Bahamian people, because nobody is going to be able to take their best buddy and say listen you can have this contract and you can come in and pay us $30 million and this is your contract.

“The extent to which that is done, where for example someone can get a $22 million contract by a  negotiating process was unheard of and should never happen in the Bahamas again,” Mr. Bannister said.

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Mr. Bannister’s remarks came while speaking with reporters outside of Cabinet yesterday.