National

Who’s Footing The Bill?

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Events like this no doubt take a substantial amount of money to pull off. 2021’s opening of parliament, an unprecedented event was moved to Baha Mar in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published

1 year ago

October 4, 2023

Berthony McDermott

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Events like this no doubt take a substantial amount of money to pull off. 2021’s opening of Parliament, an unprecedented event was moved to Baha Mar in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, for the first time in the history of the opening of Parliament, the ceremony was held away from the historic Downtown Parliament Square.

Two years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic was just nearing an end, but still posed a health risk.

The decision to move the opening to the convention center of the Baha Mar resort was due in part to safety concerns and the need for social distancing.

A copy of the expenses revealed the Davis administration spent nearly $290,000 on this event.

It showed$112,092 was spent on banquet food, $41,600 on beverages, and $11,500 on rooms.

An additional, $80,108 was spent on audio-visual services and $23,053 in service charges.

Taxes added up to $19,823 the document also reveals booking dates of October 5th to October 7th .

Prior to the release of the document, Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis revealed $200,000 was budgeted for the event.

But immediately after the opening, pressure mounted to reveal the costs with pundits alleging as much as $500,000 was spent from the public purse.

Baha Mar Senior Executive Vice President Robert Sands noted that the hotel was not able to turn a profit from the event, indicating these expenses billed to the government were just to cover costs.

While it is not difficult to surmise that holding the event in the usual confines of Parliament Square would eliminate a lot of the expenses carried from a hotel-hosted opening, attempts to get an exact amount or even an estimate from the financial secretary for the opening this time around were unsuccessful.