NASSAU| The leadership of the Free National Movement (FNM) has instructed Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) Chairman Adrian Gibson to stay quiet on the scandal involving the awarding of WSC contracts to his then fiancée Alexandria Mackey and his first cousin Rashae Gibson (pictured above) because the governing party cannot afford a corruption scandal so close to the September 16 General Election.
The embattled Long Island MP told the WSC board that there is no need to release a press statement as the party’s position is to allow the matter to blow over and soon Bahamians will forget about the allegations of corruption because they will be too caught up by election fever.
The party also told Gibson that no one will take the allegations seriously and will just see it as “political mischief” as they were only reported on by social media sites. However, the matter was also reported on by Eyewitness News on Friday.
Party officials told Gibson not to make the same mistake as Minister of Health Renward Wells who released a video statement on the COVID-19 honorariums received by his secretary and his driver despite advice from the party not to comment on the matter.
On Friday, the Gallery broke the story that Gibson’s fiancé formed Elite Maintenance Incorporated Limited with Adrian’s first cousin Rashae in June 2018 and received a Water and Sewerage contract in August 2018 for yard cleaning and ground maintenance.
According to WSC documents obtained by the Gallery, Elite Maintenance 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.
In a police complaint that Gibson filed with the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) on October 30, 2020, 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.”
