NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Former Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) Managing Director Kay Forbes-Smith yesterday denied all allegations of misconduct regarding the possession and sale of a generator to the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).
Smith’s comments came after documents purportedly related to the questionable transaction were circulated on social media last week.
Forbes said the accusations are a “conscious and coordinated witch-hunt” designed to intimidate her into abandoning her lawsuit against the government for a supposed breach of her contract.
I have wrongfully been branded a criminal and my family’s private information, including banking details, has been illegally acquired and made public.
– Kay Forbes-Smith, former DRA managing director
In a statement on the matter, Forbes-Smith “vehemently and categorically” denied any allegation that she stole a generator from the government, or acquired a generator intended for the government’s disaster relief efforts by any other means.
“This false, unfounded, cowardly attack has caused direct harm to myself and my family,” she said.
“I have wrongfully been branded a criminal and my family’s private information, including banking details, has been illegally acquired and made public.
“No one should be subjected to this kind of abuse for seeking to have a matter decided by the judiciary, which is the protector of everyone’s rights under the law.”
Forbes-Smith, who currently has a legal case against the government, said she will not be intimidated.
“The matter in question will be decided in court based on the merits; it will not be derailed by fake news campaigns or cheap political stunts,” she insisted.
“In the meantime, I reserve all of my legal rights with regard to those who continue to damage my reputation by spreading false and destructive claims.”
Apparent screenshots of an email string from GBPA officials in November 2019, requesting an invoice be created for Forbes-Smith in the amount of $16,000 for a 15-kilowatt generator, accompanied by an invoice, bank slip in the same amount directed to Bank of The Bahamas, as well as several photos of the generator made the rounds.
The circulated documents did not appear to link the generator to the DRA or suggest the generator was not the personal property of the then Senate president.
She is suing the government for contractual damages to the tune of over $408,000 for an alleged breach of her DRA contract.
According to her writ filed in the Supreme Court, she was employed on a four-year contract with effect from December 3, 2019.
The writ alleged that the DRA, in breach of the contract, terminated Forbes-Smith effective immediately on September 29, 2021, via a letter from the Office of the Prime Minister — nearly two weeks after the general election that saw the Minnis administration voted out.
This comes as the DRA continues to probe contracts awarded for the cleanup of Abaco and Grand Bahama following Hurricane Dorian.
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