It has been revealed, via 2,000 pages of documents supplied by the Government of Canada, that the OBA Minister of Finance has allegedly (word of the week) been involved in a number of questionable activities surrounding the OBA’s plans for the airport.

The documents may be found at airportemails.tumblr.com.

TRANSPARENCY?

On November 10, 2014, announcing the signing of the MOU (memorandum of understanding), Minister of Finance Bob Richards stated that the model to be used by CCC “demands total transparency adhering to international best practices”.

Ironically, on November 10, 2014, Wendy Dempsey, assistant general counsel at CCC, wrote an internal e-mail relating to the deal stating: “This should be a lesson to stop using the word ‘transparency’ as CCC is not transparent in its contracting.”

COMPETITIVE SOURCING?

On February 27, 2015, Mr Richards said in the House of Assembly: “The point is this, that the Bermuda Government didn’t chose Aecon — CCC chose Aecon — not the Bermuda Government.”

In contrast, on November 14, 2014, in an e-mail from CCC’s director of business development and sales, Don Olsen, to Susannah Denovan, CCC’s director of strategic business development and marketing: “Yes, Aecon brought this project to CCC, that was last winter and we first saw the Minister of Finance from Bermuda at the office of Aecon.”

This was mirrored in a statement on May 12, 2015, to The Royal Gazette by CCC’s president and CEO Martin Zablocki: “The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), a Canadian Crown corporation, through discussions with Aecon, was alerted to the exciting opportunity to redevelop the LF Wade International Airport.”

PRIVATISATION?

On March 31, 2015, Mr Richards stated at a St George’s town hall: “The next issue is that we’ve heard people say that this is privatisation of the airport. No, it is not privatisation.”

These statements are contradicted in e-mail correspondence dated April 15, 2014, from Andrew Shisko to Luc Allary (both of CCC) which states: “I received a call from Steve Nackan of Aecon … Intent is to privatise the airport operation.”

SUPPLIED TALKING POINTS?

It seems that perhaps the OBA has had their MPs following a concerted communication strategy suggested by Ms Dempsey, CCC’s assistant general counsel, in putting out talking points to convince the people of Bermuda that this Aecon airport deal is in the best interests of Bermuda. On December 2, 2014, she wrote to Steve Nackan, president of Aecon Concessions: “Steve, yes I am following this we have put our communications people on this.”

• On December 1, 2014, OBA MP Jeff Sousa had an opinion piece in local media stating: “Far from a slap in the face to good governance, it is a creative method of making sure Bermuda gets the best value for money.”

There have been no other competitive bids put forth. So it is impossible to know that this was the best value for money.

• On December 15, 2014, OBA MP Leah Scott had an opinion piece stating: “The Government has entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with the Canadian Commercial Corporation.”

• Steve Nackan, president of Aecon Concessions, in an e-mail to Ms Dempsey, states: “I am working on a ‘Capabilities’ document that can serve as part of a paper trail on your selection of Aecon. A draft is attached.”

• On January 9, 2015, OBA MP Cole Simons had an opinion piece stating: “Privatisation is the transfer of ownership of a property or a business from the public sector to the private. That’s not what’s happening here at all.”

• On April 7, 2015, OBA MP Sylvan Richards also had an opinion piece stating: “Far from a failure of good governance, this project is a creative and timely way of working around our debt-created challenges to make sure Bermuda gets the custom-built airport it can afford.”

Creative? On November 8, 2014, Minister Bob Richards sent an e-mail correspondence to Laurie Mahon of CIBC stating: “I’ve fuzzied up the no new debt part in view of the funding gap.”

Just coincidence, eh?

The definitions of “fuzzy accounting” are: “accounting practices that mislead investors” and “company accounting practices designed to inflate earnings or earnings estimates in order to attract investors” (www.financepractitioner.com/dictionary/fuzzy-accounting).

Many Bermudians are now asking themselves and each other these questions:

• How can a Minister of Finance “fuzzy up” any official Government figures?

• What other figures may Mr Richards have “fuzzied up”?

Wocka Wocka Wocka.