The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

MEMBERS of the former FNM government should feel “ashamed” to comment on the performance of the PLP considering the way they left the economy, Labour and National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson said yesterday.

Speaking outside Cabinet, Mr Gibson hit out at both former Labour Minister Dion Foulkes and former Bahamas Mortgage Corporation chairman Duane Sands for recent comments in the press.

“These former FNM members of parliament, former senators, they have no shame. They should really hang their heads in disgrace for the way they left this economy,” Mr Gibson said.

Mr Foulkes has called for the firing of Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis over allegations that Grand Bahama Urban Renewal Workers were not paid for seven months.

He said they were only issued contracts and paid last week.

Dr Sands and former Housing Minister Brensil Rolle recently led a tour of the housing divisions that they said need immediate government attention and urged the government to complete work in housing subdivisions, the lack of which has prevented families from moving in.

Mr Gibson said: “They’re talking about the state of the homes and subdivision. They’re the ones who left it there, they are the ones who left the Mortgage Corporation broke.

“The former minister was the one who left the state of the economy in Grand Bahama with no jobs and now he’s talking about people not being paid? They have no shame.”

Mr Gibson said he is not sure about the situation with the Grand Bahama Urban Renewal workers, but pointed out that Mr Davis “said he’s dealing with it” and claimed the FNM neglected the island’s economy when they were in charge.

“He’s talking about contracts, but you have people who they (the FNM) couldn’t find jobs for in Grand Bahama and now they’re opening their mouth about they (Urban Renewal workers) didn’t get paid.

“The former Labour Minister should be ashamed of himself to talk about Grand Bahama with the state in which they left that economy. Unemployment was about 30, 40 per cent when they left office and now they’re talking about Grand Bahama? When did they become concerned about Grand Bahama?” Mr Gibson asked.

“The former chairman of the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation being there at the housing subdivisions – they are disgraceful, they have no shame. Before the election I brought it to the public’s attention that those subdivisions were begin neglected,” he said.

“They didn’t put in any infrastructure; those houses were built over a year (ago) now. They left the Corporation with no money. The housing in Abaco – in Spring City – that’s being vandalised, they’ve been abandoned.

“I spoke about it months before the election and now they have the nerve to come in the papers talking about neglect when they left the Corporation in the state that they left it in?”