The government cannot continue to remain silent on the issue of whether or not it owns 7.5 percent of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).

Somehow, someone in government must tell the Bahamian people if Minster of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing was correct when he said recently that it is his understanding that those shares have been disposed of.

Exactly what does Laing mean by that? Were they sold? If they were sold, who sold them, and were the proceeds deposited in the Public Treasury? These should not be difficult questions to answer. A simple check of the records of the Treasury should clarify whether funds for the sale were deposited in the Treasury.

In a new twist to the story (see front page) The Guardian has discovered that the shares were transferred to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in 1970, to liquidate the government's overdraft that was held by the bank.

There is no question that the government at one time did in fact own 7.5 percent of the GBPA. As The Freeport News noted in an article published on April 11, annual returns filed by the GBPA with the Registrar of Records show that as far back as June of 1970, "The Treasurer of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas" was listed as owning 162,973 shares.

This is the same number of shares that the return filed by the GBPA in June of 2005 claimed was still owned by the Treasurer of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Assuming that the GBPA complied with the law and filed accurate returns annually from 1970 to 2005, then the conclusion can easily be drawn that this number of shares – which represent 7.5 percent of the GBPA – was listed on each of those returns.

If this is indeed the case, it is all the more imperative that someone in the government explains who collected the dividends on those shares over the 35 years between the filings in 1970 and 2005. This is no small amount of money that we are talking about, and it is mind-boggling that the government appears to not be concerned about getting to the bottom of this matter.

For starters, the government should make an effort to find out from the principals who are listed as directors or managers of the GBPA in the annual return filed in 2005, what they know about the disposition of those shares. All of these individuals can easily be contacted. Those listed as directors or managers when that 2005 annual return was filed include Sir Jack Hayward, co-chairman/director; Lady Henrietta St. George, co-chairman/director; Julian Francis, co-chairman/director; Willie Moss, deputy chairman/director/ W. Albert Gray, president/ director; Ian O. Barry, vice president/CFO/director; Sir Albert Miller, co-chairman/director; Sean McWeeney, director; Sharon Wilson, director; Barry J. Malcolm, executive vice president; and Carey G. Leonard, secretary.

With the exception of Sir Jack and Lady Henrietta, who are both not in the country, all of the others can easily be reached by telephone, so surely an investigation into this matter cannot be all that difficult. One published report claimed that in an interview back in 1984, the late Edward St. George alleged that the shares were sold back to the GBPA for $8 million. Finding out whether that is true likewise is not all that difficult. Surely the GBPA board of directors would have had to approve such a purchase. Moreover, the sale could not have been made on behalf of the government without the approval of the House of Assembly.

This matter should not be allowed to continue to be fodder for speculation. Government must let the public know post haste whether it does or does not own those shares, and provide an appropriate explanation to support whatever statement it issues.