OBA: Furbert misled the public

MONDAY, JANUARY 7: The OBA today took a swing at Shadow Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert after he admitted the former PLP Government had dumped the developer of a new hotel on the old Club Med site in St George’s.

Mr Furbert late last year said the contract with Carl Bazarian had been cancelled – then appeared to backtrack a day later.

Now OBA chairman Thad Hollis has accused the ex-Minister of “misleading the Bermudian public” to avoid bad publicity damaging St George’s PLP candidates in the run-up to the General Election.

Mr Hollis said: “If that is the truth, it would be an extraordinary abuse of the trust many voters had in the PLP, trust which the PLP told us over and over again was entirely justified.

“Perhaps Mr Furbert should tell the voters, especially those who live in St George’s, exactly when this termination of the agreement took place.”

Mr Furbert’s latest statement said that the PLP Government had ended the agreement because Mr Bazarian had failed to break ground at the site within the time frame specified in the contract.

He said in a TV interview in September that the agreement to build a Park Hyatt hotel in the old town had been terminated.

But he added the following day that he had “misspoke”.

Mr Furbert added: “What I meant to say is that the time period for the agreement has expired and that the agreement has lapsed.

“We are fully committed to a hotel in St George’s. Mr Bazarian and his team are travelling to Bermuda and we will be meeting with him next week.”

Mr Hollis added: “I am sure I speak for most Bermudians when I express my utter amazement at the statement made by the former Minister of Tourism to the effect that the PLP Government cancelled Mr Bazarian’s contract to build a hotel in St George’s some time last year.”