NASSAU| The Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) has interviewed the ex-fiancée of former Water and Sewerage Corporation Executive Chairman Adrian Gibson as authorities ramp up investigations into alleged gross misconduct at the utility company.
Alexandria Mackey – who shared a Royal Bank account with Gibson and was engaged to him – was listed as a director of Elite Maintenance, a company that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in WSC contracts while Gibson was executive chairman.
High-placed sources tell the Gallery that Mackey was very cooperative with police during her interview and provided all information requested by authorities as they seek to untangle the intricate web weaved during Gibson’s tenure.
Police have also contacted former WSC General Manager Elwood Donaldson and asked him to come in today for questioning as they try to piece together how the fiancée (an attorney) and first cousin (a marketing manager) of the corporation’s chairman managed to secure maintenance contracts outside the scope of their areas of expertise.
According to leaked documents, Elite Maintenance Incorporated Ltd received a series of payments from WSC totaling over $500,000 between November 2018 and January 2021.The biggest payments were $232,206 on January 7, 2021, $131,601.12 on July 7, 2020 and $15,600 on November 6, 2018.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.In a police complaint that Adrian Gibson filed with the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Police Force on October 30, 2020, the Long Island MP referred to Mackey as his fiancee.
In the police report, Gibson said, “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 August 2021, Donaldson confirmed in a statement that WSC signed a contract with Mackey.
“I can confirm that a Ms. Alexandria Mackey (the attorney), who originally interacted with the Corporation as a legal agent for a company by the name of Elite Maintenance, did indeed advise the Corporation of this via correspondence.
“I was advised of her authorization to act as attorney of record. The attorney – at a later juncture – issued correspondence to the Corporation advising that she was no longer authorized to act on behalf of the company as agent and requested an amendment of WSC’s records to reflect the same,” according to a statement issued by Donaldson.
Instead of addressing the blatant conflict of interest, the then-Water and Sewerage GM instead focused on the leak of Water and Sewerage information. The ongoing investigation into blatant conflicts of interest and gross mismanagement of corporation funds comes months after then-Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis repeatedly defended Gibson despite the damning evidence against him.
Then-Minister of Works Desmond Bannister remained mum on the scandal as he was afraid of his own conflicts of interest coming to light.
If criminal charges are brought at the conclusion of the WSC investigation, will Minnis and Bannister defend Gibson once again?
It will also be interesting to see how new Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Michael Pintard responds to the clear malfeasance under the Minnis Administration.
