NASSAU| Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) Chairman Adrian Gibson has been caught red-handed awarding six-figure payments to a company co-owned by his fiancee and a woman believed to be Gibson’s relative.
According to WSC documents obtained by the Gallery, Elite Maintenance Incorporated Ltd. received a series of payments, totalling over $500,000 between November 2018 and January 2021 from Water and Sewerage. The biggest payments were $232,206 on January 7, 2021, $131,601.12 on July 7, 2020 and $15,600 on November 6, 2018.
Alexandria Mackey, who is an attorney, and Rashae Gibson, who is a marketing manager, are listed as directors of the company, which was formed in June 2018. Their contract was signed with WSC in August 2018.
Mackey is Gibson’s fiancee, according to a police report he signed while Rashae Gibson is also connected to the WSC chairman. Adrian and Rashae were pictured together at the Opening of Parliament following the Free National Movement’s election victory in May 2017. Adrian and Rashae were also snapped in multiple pictures and selfies dating back to 2011.
In a police complaint that Adrian Gibson filed with the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) on October 30, 2020, Gibson said Alexandria Mackey is his fiancee. In the police report, Gibson says, “My fiancee Alexandria Mackey and I opened a joint account at the Royal Bank of Canada sometime in 2014 when we began dating. The account is based at the Cable Beach branch and we also have online banking for that account.”
In 2018, Alexandria Mackey signed a WSC Ground Maintenance Memorandum of Understanding with a WSC representative. The agreement for the “provision of yard cleaning and ground maintenance services” was authorized by WSC General Manager Elwood Donaldson whose signature is also on the document.
The same Adrian Gibson who vowed in May 2018 to implement “new policies and procedures aimed at lessening corruption and the hemorrhaging of funds at WSC is involved in a blatant conflict of interest by allowing Water and Sewerage to award a contract to a woman he admitted to sharing a bank account with. Further, what experience do Alexandria the attorney and Rashae the marketing manager have in yard cleaning and ground maintenance?
Will Adrian Gibson be forced to step down as WSC chairman or will this be brushed under the carpet like other transgressions?
