NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC -Prime Minister Phillip Davis has welcomed the ruling by an independent tribunal that the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) is liable and must make payments to the Government and the people of The Bahamas, until the year 2054.
In a radio and television broadcast on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Davis said that the Tribunal also confirmed that the Government has the Authority to govern Freeport “because …the people’s elected representatives must have the power to prefer and promote Bahamian employment and ownership anywhere and everywhere in The Bahamas”.
The Government has released the full 139-page award on the Office of the Prime Minister’s website, along with a guide to help the public navigate the decision.
In its ruling dismissing the US$357 million against the GBPA, the three-member arbitration panel of Anthony Smellie, ex-chief justice of the Cayman Islands, Lord Neuberger and Dame Elizabeth Gloster, also found the Government was in breach of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement by failing “to take the necessary steps” to effect environmental bye-laws for the city that were first proposed by the GBPA nearly 20 years ago.
In a statement, the GBPA described the outcome as a landmark ruling for Freeport and Grand Bahama, saying, “This is more than a legal victory. It is a stabilising moment for Freeport.
“We trust the ruling will give licensees, investors, stakeholders, and Grand Bahama residents renewed assurance and optimism for the future. We have advised the Government repeatedly since June 2016 that this claim was wrong and would fail. It was not a good use of time or public resources.
“We have always maintained that benefit for Grand Bahama would best be obtained by GBPA and government working together,” the GBPA said in its statement.
The Tribunal has instructed both sides to identify outstanding issues, including damages and costs, and to agree on a procedure and timetable for determining those matters, with a report back due in early March.
But in his broadcast, Prime Minister Davis said the country can celebrate a historic victory and that a “new legal decision will help to shape the future of Grand Bahama and our entire country”.
He described the ruling as a “historic turning point,” saying, “it’s about fairness. It is about replacing drift and decline in Freeport with investment and opportunity.
“It’s about a new chapter for Grand Bahama – one built on partnership and respect. It’s about beginning a new chapter – because the old story doesn’t work anymore. Above all, this ruling is a victory in our ongoing struggle to defend our sovereignty, to overturn an unfair status quo, and to claim the right to shape our own future.”
Prime Minister Davis said that while early Bahamian leaders had fought for majority rule for justice and equality under the law, “yet the second biggest Bahamian city was run by non-Bahamians – because of the 1955 Hawksbill Creek Agreement, a contract signed by a white colonial government and an American businessman”.
He said that the status quo in Freeport has meant decisions affecting life there are still too often made without Bahamians in the room.
“It was not right then, and it’s not right now – that the lives of the tens of thousands of Bahamians who live in Freeport, work in Freeport, pay their bills in Freeport, raise their children in Freeport, and worship in churches in Freeport – are governed by two private families, who need never answer to the people.
“Whatever good the arrangement accomplished decades ago, it has been a long time since these massive concessions made any sense. ”
Prime Minister Davis said that basic services and infrastructure have fallen behind, contributing to economic decline, and that under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, many of those responsibilities belong to the Port Authority.
“Instead, the people of The Bahamas have been paying the bill,” he said, noting that in 2024, acting under the law and after careful work with independent accountants, the Government went to arbitration to seek reimbursement “because we do not believe public taxpayers should subsidise the private profits of those lucky enough to inherit an agreement made long ago.
“We are the first government to take such an action, and we wanted our legal claim to deliver a warning: this old arrangement must bend toward fairness, or it will break under the weight of its own injustice.”
Prime Minister Davis said that the Tribunal’s ruling now means that the Port Authority “must bend toward its obligations, and pay for their fair share, taking that burden away from Bahamian taxpayers.
“The ruling means that those who want to keep Bahamians on the sidelines must bend toward a new reality – and a new balance of power and responsibility. And the idea that Freeport is beyond the reach of Bahamian law and accountability – that at last, has begun to break.”
He said the Tribunal comprising “respected, international, independent jurists,” in their ruling noted that the “Government’s claim, which we made under a particular clause in the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, should be made instead under a newer 1994 agreement, signed by the FNM (Free National Movement) government, who extended many of the concessions in the original agreement.
“Here is what is significant: the Tribunal ruled that the Grand Bahama Port Authority has an obligation to make annual payments to the Government and the people of The Bahamas for the remainder of the entire Hawksbill Creek Agreement, until 2054.
“That means the Port Authority can’t just collect license fees – they have to live up to their responsibilities, too. I also want Bahamians to understand: The Port Authority brought their own claim – against The Bahamas, against all of us – in which they argued that the Government didn’t have the right to be involved in most of Freeport’s affairs.”
Prime Minister Davis said that GBPA argued that the Port Authority, rather than a government elected by the people, should control business licences for non-Bahamians, immigration, customs, utilities such as electricity, foreign land purchases, and environmental and development approvals.
“They even said they should be awarded one billion dollars of your tax dollars. They wanted us to pay them one billion dollars – instead of using that revenue for our schools, our security, our roads and airports, our development and progress.
“So let me say to anyone who has been rooting against us: I invite you to rethink your priorities seriously. There is no honour in hoping your country loses so you can score political points, Davis said, adding “the tribunal rejected the Port Authority’s arguments – and you should have, too.”
He said the Tribunal ruled against seven of the eight claims made by the Port Authority, granting only that the Government should have responded faster to a set of environmental rules proposed by the Authority.
“I accept that finding. We will move quickly to do so,” he said.
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