The Tribune

FREE National Movement Chairman Darron Cash yesterday criticised Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis for questioning job figures recently released by the Department of Statistics.

“This past week (Mr) Davis expressed a public vote of no confidence in the prime minister and the minister of state for finance,” Mr Cash said in a statement released yesterday.

“He accused the (department) of doing incomplete, grossly inadequate and shoddy work.

“In effect, he accused the prime minister and minister of state of releasing inaccurate and misleading employment data. He argued – incorrectly we insist – that the data should be in line with NIB data. We think (he) is wading way out of his depth on this issue.”

Mr Cash said the Department of Statistics accumulates and reports on vital statistics that are expected to dispassionately reflect factual data about the general state of the country and the economy in particular. He added that the department’s information is particularly important because it influences domestic and international investor confidence.

“As a general rule the (department’s) information should be above reproach,” Mr Cash added. “Their reports should be unaffected by political manipulation. This reality existed under the FNM. Doubts abound about whether that is true under this PLP government. Prime Minister Perry Christie is minister of finance. He has a Minister of State for Finance, Michael Halkitis. These two finance ministers are directly responsible for the Department of Statistics; as ministers, they vouch for the integrity of the numbers.”

Mr Cash suggested that Mr Davis’ gripe with the numbers may be an attempt to apply “pressure” to the department to make the government “look better than they are really doing in creating jobs.”

This week, it was reported that Mr Davis suggested that the recent employment figures released by the department are not an accurate reflection of the number of jobs created by the government.

A Labour Force study released earlier this month shows that 8,390 jobs were added to the economy since May 2012.

Mr Davis has asserted that the Christie administration has created more than 10,000 jobs since the May 7, 2012 general election.

He also said that National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson has noted that employment information from the National Insurance Board show that 30,000 jobs were created since May 7, 2012, to May 2014.

However in June, Mr Gibson clarified that the 30,000 jobs he said were created are a “mixture” of previously unemployed people and those who were employed, but had transferred to new companies from their current jobs.