The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

As we come to the final chapter, the coda or epilogue of the FNM government, one of its damning consequences has been that taxpayers have paid the most for the FNM corruption.

We are hurting. There is a real cost for the incompetence and ineptitude of the government and the taxpayers of the nation have been saddled with the costs. The costs are not only in dollars and cents but also reputational as we have been made to look like fools in the eyes of the world.

Let us examine some of the facts. Since 2017, four ministers out of the original Cabinet have resigned or have had to resign in circumstances where corruption surfaced or was strongly alleged. One other minister still serving as a minister has been judicially condemned.

Surely this must be a record for any government anywhere, and most certainly a record for The Bahamas. Space does not allow me to go into the details as to why Messrs Symonette, Sands and Turnquest and now Madam Rolle have had to leave the government but their resignations were not under the best of circumstances.

Very early in the FNM administration we had a clear signal that the FNM were corrupt when the saga of the OBAN deal unfolded. The Prime Minister himself signed what he should have know was a fraudulent document with an individual who had a tarnished past and presented it to the Bahamian people as being a legitimate investment which would bring untold prosperity to the Bahamian people. An investigation and the release of a report on this affair were entrusted to a committee headed by a senior and experienced Cabinet minister. After some three years there has been not one word on the findings.

The pattern continued with the lease of the Town Centre Mall, an issue which has yet to be satisfactorily explained to the public.

The Sands and Turnquest saga, which while personal in nature, has resulted in the loss of two of the FNM brightest and ablest ministers and we have not had a sensible statement from the Prime Minister on either matter.

Now there is the Lanisha Rolle scandal. No details have been released on why she had to resign but it points to some real issues and yet the Prime Minister publicly said that she will not be pursued in any investigation. Who then will be pursued?

At the wider level, corruption has manifested itself in many other ways. The Prime Minister as the “Competent Authority”, and in his new role as Minister of Finance, has yet to account to parliament as required by the Constitution on the expenditure of public funds under the COVID-19 emergency. How much money has been spent? Who were the suppliers of goods and services? Where is the transparency and accountability for funds spent for the Feeding Programme?

Here in New Providence, while people are literally starving and homeless, the FNM government has embarked on a senseless and wasteful programme of sidewalk construction which has now become the laughing stock of the public. But this is no laughing matter – it is the taxpayers who will foot the bill for these expenditures.

Then there is the purchase and sale of the Grand Lucayan Beach hotel in Grand Bahama. If ever there has been a maze of confusion, it has surfaced over this project which the government has not been able to come to grips with. The Government has spent millions of the taxpayers’ money with nothing to show for it. It is money that could have been better and more wisely spent. The public should demand to know what is really happening.

The entire process has been a sad saga of one bad decision after another by the government. Considerable public funds have been wasted on this project and there is no accounting for it. The bottom line is that at a time when the public is under an onerous 12% rate of VAT – some 60% more than what the government met when it came to office – the corruption of the FNM is a direct cost to the Bahamian people who cannot bear up under the strain.

It is clear that the government has lost its way and sadly, it is the Bahamian people who must now pay the piper for its corruption.

DEMOCRACY KEEPER

Nassau,

February 28, 2021.