The Real Earl

Earl Deveaux (arms folded) doing what he does best, stopping, blocking and reviewing and canceling contracts all across the country whilst thousands of Bahamians are fired under his direction. l to r Earl Deveaux

Nassau, Bahamas: Bahamas Press takes grave exception to pretty words coming from out of the mouth of a snake. It is a view that Earl Deveaux, Minister of Public Works, is nothing more than a corrupt career civil servant, who now finds himself in charge of the Public Works ‘Cookie Jar.’ His appointment to any position of authority in government is truly sad and putting at risk the funds made available for capital works. This was made painfully evident for a young contractor who recently emailed Bahamas Press with his concerns.

The background of this story as Bahamas Press has been made aware can be found in this contractor having gotten his first government contract under the new PLP. In his sincerity to prove that he can get the job done, he mobilized the job out of his own funds and in fact, Officials at the ministry were amazed at how the well the job was done and in a timely fashion. Subsequently, the contractor was awarded another job just before the change of government and then he ran into the real Earl Deveaux . The following is his experience with Minister Earl Deveaux:

“We won a contract through the bidding process, still negotiated the price with the Ministry of Works and was given a contract agreement letter signed by the now Permanent Secretary, we even submitted a letter for mobilization. The project officer of whom we worked with before seemed to always be slow in processing payment, so we did not worry so much we brought materials for the project and was just awaiting the call from him to say when we should start. We did not hear from him so we continued to check with him periodically. He would always tell us he was waiting on a letter as to when we could commence work. Months later we were finally told that the contract was given to someone else, or that someone who was doing work there already, it was decided that they should do the work, or that it was terminated and we would get a letter. To date we have not gotten any letter.”

This is how Minister Earl Deveaux runs the Ministry of Public Works. Yet, during the recent Budget Debate he talked ‘good governance.’ Bahamas Press cannot accept that good governance has as its components, deceit and corruption. But as many Bahamians are finding out, the only difference between Minister Deveaux and a poisonous snake is that the snake doesn’t walk upright and wear a suit.