By Krystel Rolle-Brown Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter From Caribbean News Now

NASSAU, Bahamas — The Bahamas government assumed the cost to finish the Baha Mar Convention Centre ahead of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) annual general meetings this week, government project coordinator Janeen McCartney revealed on Tuesday.

In total the government budgeted around $6 million to prepare for and host the event, she said. However, it is unclear how much of that money was spent specifically on Baha Mar’s development.

“We would have paid to have the items were not ready. We would have assumed that cost,” McCartney said following a tour of the convention centre.

McCartney, a former permanent secretary in the ministry of finance, said the government had to bring in several experts to look at the convention centre as it had been shuttered for several months.

“For example, they would have brought in air condition experts, they brought in landscape people, they would have brought in people to ensure that all the cable and Wi-Fi (are working) because we have to have all of that in place,” she said.

“So they brought those persons back to the table to ensure and tweak it and ensure the facilities and the bathrooms work.

“Those are the things that you have to go back out and sort out because [Baha Mar] was closed for a few months.

“Once you put this amount of people into a building, you have to ensure that everything works, the fire escape and all that kind of things.

“They brought in their technicians and we assumed that responsibility to ensure that we had it ready.”

The 2016 annual general meetings of the boards of governors of the IDB and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) is expected to bring more than 2,000 people from 48 countries. Additionally, McCartney said about 1,000 Bahamian residents will be involved in the meetings.

The government has been preparing to host the conference for more than a year.

McCartney said some of the equipment purchased by the government, including the computers and furniture, will be moved into government buildings once the IDB conference has ended.

As for any other investments the government made toward the convention centre, McCartney said the government would have to cut its losses.

She noted that the government agreed to host the meetings with the anticipation that Baha Mar would be complete by now.

“[We’ll] just have to cut it because we just needed to have a facility, having agreed that The Bahamas, almost from about two years out, [would] host and you couldn’t six months out say, ‘Look, we can’t do it’. We had to cancel [previously] when we had two hurricanes but what would have been our excuse this time?

“This was a challenge that none of us could have foreseen when we committed last year in South Korea but thank God it worked to our advantage and we’re here today and we’re ready.”

Baha Mar filed for bankruptcy in the United States on June 29. However, the substantive bankruptcy claim in the US has since been dismissed.

Last year, a local Supreme Court judge approved a request from China Export-Import (EXIM) Bank to send Baha Mar into receivership.

Last month, the receivers turned the convention centre over to the government to host the conference. During that time, McCartney said several potential buyers have visited the property.

“Our concern now is decommissioning because we have to get out of here,” she said. “As I speak, we just had… one of the banks wanting to come in.

“We’ve had them (the receivers) ask us to let people come in because investors have been coming through to look at the facility because it is living now.

“So you can see what can happen. We were pleased to allow them to come in and see because we want this whole strip open.

“I think this demonstrates what can be.”

The conference ends on April 10.

IMAGE: The 2016 annual general meetings of the boards of governors of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation are expected to bring more than 2,000 people from 48 countries. Photos: Ahvia J. Campbell
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