NASSAU, Bahamas — Although much less recovery work was done on Grand Bahama than on Abaco following Hurricane Dorian in 2019, much more money was being paid out for the work on Grand Bahama, Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) Executive Chairman Alex Storr said yesterday, adding that the company in question was receiving as much as $1 million a month, The Nassau Guardian reported on Thursday, February 10.
“… The debris seems to have simply been dumped on a vacant lot. There was no type of sorting. On Abaco, there is at least sites I can see that some attempts were being made to sort,” said Storr, who visited Abaco and Grand Bahama in recent days to assess the work that was done after the cataclysmic Category 5 storm. “In Grand Bahama, it seems that it was simply dumped and not sorted. Actually, the two sites I visited were under the same company. So, one company has been receiving as much as $1 million per month.”
He said, “I have seen bills of $400,000 and some as high as $500,000 a month (at each of the two sites), whereas, on Abaco, the highest I have seen was 300,000-some-odd dollars on one site and $160,000, $180,000 on another site.
“It leaves me to wonder why the cost in Grand Bahama is some two to three times more than in Abaco, but I can see that even less work was done in Grand Bahama.”
Storr said the work on Grand Bahama was “severely overvalued”.
“Let me give you this example. There are two sites on Abaco which are ran by two separate companies,” he said.
“We have the one company that we spoke about that was billing at $300,000. We have another company on Abaco that was billing from $150,000 to $180,000 even though their site is bigger.
“With their reporting, they are providing me pictures, they are providing me the loads. They are providing the license plate numbers for trucks that come in and I can go online to their Share Drive and I can pick any day and I can see pictures of the trucks and the loads that came in.
“With these other two, no such reporting was done. There was no such reporting provided and this company is charging less than both of these companies.”
Storr said an executive at the DRA was sent on administrative leave as questions continue to rise about contracts issued under the previous administration.
DEFENSE
The Nassau Guardian spoke yesterday with Ed Curling, principal of Tycoon Waste Management Company, which was contracted by the DRA to carry out recovery work on Grand Bahama after Dorian.
Curling managed the debris management sites in McClean’s Town and High Rock. His company also cleaned up Pelican Point.
Asked whether Tycoon had been receiving $1 million a month from the DRA, he said, “No. I can put my books on top of the table. It won’t make a difference to me. I kept good books. I paid everyone that I had hired. The Grand Bahamians were out of homes in the east end of Grand Bahama, out of homes, out of everything. I hired as many of them as I could have possibly hired. And, very little money I walked out of there with.”
He added, “I can let someone lay my books on the table of Parliament. I know that I worked for whatever money I received…” See complete Nassau Guardian article at https://thenassauguardian.com/storm-contracts-in-question/
