The Tribune

Parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Cleola Hamilton’s intended criticism of the US government’s 2014 Investment Climate Statement on the Bahamas was cut short by House Speaker Kendal Major yesterday who advised her to stick to the Disabilities Bill then before the House.

Her comments came during the House’s morning debate yesterday on the Persons with Disabilities and Equal Opportunities Bill.

“Personally I think, Mr Speaker, it is disingenuous coming from a country whose Congress sits around and does absolutely nothing. (They) failed to fulfil their election promises ...” Mrs Hamilton started.

Before she could elaborate on her disapproval of the US’s critique of the Bahamas government, she was advised by the Speaker to stick to arguments relevant to the bill being debated.

“The chair would prefer that all members, their remarks are related to the Disability legislation,” Speaker Major said. “The chair takes the matter very seriously, but I want to apply the rule of relevance to this debate as we go forward, so stick to the matter at hand.”

The US State Department’s report, released in late June, pointed directly to the Progressive Liberal Party’s 2012 “unfulfilled” campaign promises.

The report also hinted at corruption in high and low levels of the government and mentioned problems with government issued contracts, which it called “problematic”.

“Successive administrations have reneged on or renegotiated contracts executed by previous administrations,” the report said.

“Over the last year, the Embassy has received several complaints from US companies alleging a lack of transparency and undue government interference with bidding and procurement processes.”

Since the report’s publication, several members of the PLP have objected to the details in the document.

Shortly after the report came out, Prime Minister Perry Christie told reporters he found the report “puzzling”, adding that the document used only what “opposition sources” were saying and did not give an objective assessment of the PLP government.

“The annual statement by the state department is meant to present an objective assessment of economic and fiscal situations in our country,” Mr Christie said earlier this month. “Unfortunately, some have been led to draw on specific points in the statement to present a negative tone in respect of the plan of action that my government laid out in our charter for governance prior to the election and which we are aggressively pursuing during the course of our present mandate, which is five years. It is simply inappropriate to look at a snapshot of the current situation and draw negative conclusions on the success of our plan.”

Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister “Brave” Davis found it “inappropriate” for the US to comment on the PLP’s election promises. He also expressed confusion over the criticism of the government’s bidding and contract issuance processes, noting that the Bahamas government never interferes in the US’ domestic issues.

“I don’t know what they mean by it,” Mr Davis had added. “I don’t understand. As a government, we don’t question their processes. Nor do we interfere, nor do we engage in their domestic issues.”

Mr Davis said he approves of the government’s procurement processes. He suggested that concerns exist because of the competitive nature of contract bidding.