The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Chairman Darron Cash yesterday said Deputy Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis is either “delusional” or spreading misinformation by saying his ministry created over 10,000 jobs since coming into office in 2012.

Mr Cash said the 10,000 jobs claim is “significantly different” from the numbers published by the Department of Statistics. He said Mr Davis is sending the wrong message to potential international investors by contradicting those figures.

In fact, Mr Cash said the only way Mr Davis could have created those jobs is if he filled them with “foreign consultants and illegal aliens”.

His comments came after Mr Davis told reporters that his ministry alone, the Ministry of Works, has already created 10,000 jobs “just in contracts and works” in the last two years.

Despite Mr Davis’ assertion, according to the most recent Labour Force Survey by the Department of Statistics only 3,265 jobs were added to the economy between May 2012 and November 2013.

Mr Cash said the figures suggest that someone is not telling the truth.

“The delusional deputy has asserted that he alone has created ‘more than 10,000 jobs’ in his ministry,” Mr Cash said in a statement released yesterday.

“Mr Davis is obviously a believer in the theory that if he repeats (something) often enough some people will believe it. As this country’s deputy prime minister, Mr Davis should know better and knowing better he must do better.

“The 10,000 jobs statistic quoted by (Mr Davis) is clearly, unequivocally and significantly different from the numbers published by his government’s own Department of Statistics. A deputy prime minister’s insistence that Bahamians should have confidence in obvious bogus statistics sends the wrong message to Bahamian businessmen and potential international investors.

“At a time when the Christie administration has already been slammed by a serious charge of alleged widespread corruption in its dealings with foreign investors, it is not a good idea for the deputy prime minister to further undermine confidence in his government by forcing the business community and general public to feel that they should have little confidence in the statistics released by the Department of Statistics.

“Both Mr Davis and the Department of Statistics can not be right ... the FNM knows that Mr Davis is wrong and the Department of Statistics is right and Mr Davis must admit it.”

In May, Prime Minister Perry Christie said that during his administration’s two years in office, labour market conditions improved slightly with 2,600 jobs added to the Bahamian workforce.

According to the most recent Labour Force Survey released in February, 166,595 people were employed in the Bahamas in November 2013 compared to 163,330 in May 2012.

The job creation numbers, however, also disagree with a figure printed on the inside cover page of a magazine created and funded by Bahamas Information Services (BIS) to mark the government’s two years in office.

The 60-page document was distributed with a caption which read: “Almost 7,000 new jobs created as Christie government marks 2nd anniversary in office.”