The Tribune

THE opposition Free National Movement hit out at the PLP over its take on the latest unemployment numbers, claiming it reveals the hypocrisy of the governing party.

Figures and statistics are portrayed as believable by the PLP when they are in office, but described as suspicious under an FNM administration, party chairman Darron Cash said in a statement.

“What a difference a day makes,”Mr Cash said. “When the PLP was in opposition any release of favourable information by the professionals at the Department of Statistics (DOS) was met with outrage and scepticism. They argued that the numbers were probably fixed.

“And, there was hypersensitivity to the number of discouraged workers and the call for the FNM administration to focus on job creation programmes.

“This is not the PLP’s approach now that they are in government. What hypocrites. Quite miraculously, the professionals, processes and numbers from the DOS are now all fine that the PLP are in office and the news seems to favour them.”

The important lesson for public, Mr Cash said, is that the PLP is not to be trusted or taken at their word when they are campaigning.

He noted that the “mixed bag” of new numbers – welcomed by the PLP on the same day the Sheraton and Wyndham Cable Beach Resort fired 175 employees – showed that unemployment in New Providence declined slightly while Grand Bahama’s joblessness increased.

“Despite the presence of a ubiquitous full time Minister, Grand Bahama has not been the beneficiary of improved employment prospects,” the FNM chairman said.

Mr Cash said that on each past occasion when they saw the need to undermine any favourable numbers released by the DOS or the Central bank while the FNM was in office, PLP leaders showed little concern for the professional integrity of the people who led the departments they attacked.

“While in opposition the FNM will not shoot the messenger or unjustly call into question the integrity of their work. Our focus will remain on the fundamental issues of job creation and the factors that lead to discouragement among Bahamians who desperately want to enter the workforce,” he said.

He noted that when the government stopped the FNM’s 52 week jobs programme and fired the people who were on it, the Minister of Labour and the Prime Minister promised that they would imminently announce a replacement programme.

“Indeed the PLP Charter for Governance promised an emergency jobs programme. So far, well said, but not well done,” Mr Cash said.

He said the Christie administration has done nothing to stimulate employment and the “small gains” seen today are clearly do to the work of the previous FNM government.