FNM DEPUTY: BUDGET WAS POORLY PRESENTED AND CONFUSING

Loretta Butler-Turner in the House of Assembly.

As of Friday, June 20, 2014

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE strong criticism over voting against the Christie administration’s 2014/2015 Budget, the Free National Movement stood by its decision in a bid to highlight the lack of transparency and clarity in the government’s fiscal plans.

Yesterday, FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner said not only had the budget been presented poorly, but that several of its 72 headers were points of confusion for FNM MPs and government parliamentarians alike.

She made the comments after the House’s morning session when the FNM posed several questions seeking clarification in various

budget allocations. It drew contention from both sides at some points of the sitting. Among the FNM’s discrepancies were notable decreases and increases with line item allocations when compared to the previous budget year.

As a result, six of the FNM’s eight MPs, with the exception of Central and South Abaco representative Edison Key, abstained from voting. Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn was absent from the House.

On conclusion of the committee stage in the House of Assembly, the Budget, which seeks approval to borrow $343 million for the upcoming fiscal year, will be sent to the Senate for debate. The budget will pass the lower chamber because the Christie administration holds a 30-seat majority in the House.

“The reason why the opposition has taken the position is that we will not support this budget,” the Long Island MP said. “It lacks transparency. It lacks clarity. And in terms of good accounting practices it goes against the grain of everything we’ve ever done historically and what we should do in terms of making clear to the Bahamian people where their money is being spent.

“The reason why we are abstaining head-by-head is because we would like to go through every head individually and at the end of the whole exercise we would have been able to ask pertinent questions to see if we can bring greater clarity to the whole process.

“Once we would have done that I think the Bahamian people would clearly be able to see that we have demonstrated that not only us are confused, but more importantly the Ministers and the government representing this budget of illusion and delusion are totally lost.”

Mrs Butler-Turner said that in the interest of accountability, the FNM would not allow the government to have “carte blanche” as they seek funds to cover the year without proper accounting.

birdiestrachan 10 years, 5 months ago

Just plain foolishness. Butler carries on in the house like a woman who is out of control and it shows, she shouts all kinds of insults across the room. but when something is said to her she takes on her roll of poor me., The Minister of finance said they have a new more efficient way of presenting the Budget. It is to bad she does not understand it. As for her "The Bahamian people" may be some Bahamian People FNM's . But many FNM's do not want her as leader. Their display during the Budget with all their petty questions was just a plain disgrace and not necessary.

mangogirl01 10 years, 5 months ago

Birdiestrachan, you can't be serious!! Mrs. LBT did not shout insults, the prime minister was the one who insulted her when he said she may have health challenges!! The budget is confusing, mixed up with a lot of missing info, too bad you don't understand how to read it!!

Honestman 10 years, 5 months ago

Birdiestrachan says "The Minister of finance said they have a new more efficient way of presenting the Budget."

Quite - it is called concealment!

birdiestrachan 10 years, 5 months ago

Butler shouted across the house floor while PM Christie was speaking Liar, Liar , as if she was going mad. that is when he mentioned her health. One must pay attention, to hear her logic one would think there is some kind of conspiracy going on. There is no actual money. They are trying to borrow money and there will be checks and balance by all Department.she want you all to believe, and you all do, that some one has a cookie jar and every body is stealing from it, mostly the PLP member of the house. it is all a great big lie.

killemwitdakno 10 years, 5 months ago

You already said it, there WAS no money when PLP got in so they have money from somewhere perhaps only borrowing yet how much has been borrowed, what was the collateral, and what is needed to be paid by when. They Have money that wasn't there before and yet priorities are not being covered, although they want their raise first. you're right somewhere there is a great big lie. Do yourself a favor and go figure it out.

sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago

Birdie be quiet!!!!!!!!!!! This is a lousy, confusing and illogical budget.............. did you listen to Perry and Halkitis as they tried to explain some of those heads??? And dont even mention some of the senior Cabinet ministers............ some even refused to try and answer questions

birdiestrachan 10 years, 5 months ago

Confusing? every thing is confusing to the confused . You know what they say :" when you Dumb you dangerous" She should endeavour to learn and stop her ranting and raging. it does not help, and they had already decided to vote against it. It makes no sense, but again "Common sense is not Common".

killemwitdakno 10 years, 5 months ago

y'all are some DANGEROUSLY brainwashed defenders. did you even consider what she is asking for.

GQ 10 years, 5 months ago

There is a grave error in the reporting of this story. It should read ALL FNM MP'S ABSTAINED. Edison Key NEVER WAS A FNM he used that party to become a MP and collect his salary and pension. Shame on him for what he did to those hard working Abaco people getting him elected twice and just a much shame on HAI for forcing him on the faithful FNM'S. Key should either resign or walk across the aisle where he belongs.

sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago

Key is useless ....................... for either party............ he is an embarrassment to our Parliament ............... period

asiseeit 10 years, 5 months ago

My 12 year old niece could have done better, they did not even complete it. Where is the breakdown? Hiding something???

killemwitdakno 10 years, 5 months ago

Google Graphs . ( copy this code and paste to http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp…) http://www.google.com/publicdata/embed?…</a>">

Every Bahamian should have more cash in their pocket than the average citizen in the countries listed > https://www.cia.gov/library/publication…

killemwitdakno 10 years, 5 months ago

This is terribly sad. People want to build businesses and they can't even know simply what the budget means. I feel like I'm watching an old trembling man be handed a 100 pg contract full of fine print and garbage and offenses, and he better understand it or else he loses. and it's about his money. shame on you. deliberately keeping it difficult.

people just want to know. They have a right to clearly decipher for themselves what's going on and the state of the economy. There's barely any financial stats listed. They have right to public data for important uses like hidden taxpayer cost. it's sad.

and PINDLING COULD COME UP WITH $300,000 OVERNIGHT for what she Evaded ! wan tax us without us knowing anything. 7 people were shot tonight and if it were up to gov , we wouldn't have known.

we want whistleblower protection. we want open book. campaign finance disclosure reports. Responsible Resource Development for environmental standards. Purchase Orders. Public Space Permits. Crime incidents. Completed construction. anticipated regulatory changes or proposals that departments or agencies intend to bring forward within a given TIMEFRAME. we want to know about overseas trade deals happening with Dubai.

What's modern: real time data, infographs, dynamic interactive graphs.

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2014…

killemwitdakno 10 years, 5 months ago

FUCK YOU TRIBUNE FOR DELETING MY LINKS ! THAT'S WHY YOU LIE ABOUT THE DEBT !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNk3dV.">Cayman FOIA . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL6Bvy">Access to information .

See the http://www.oas.org/en/default.asp">little Accountability tab on OAS website

http://www.ioc.state.il.us/index.cfm/fi…">States Transparency Portals

http://www.ioc.state.il.us/index.cfm/fi…">monthly fiscal condition

See links in footer under http://www.canada.ca/en/transparency/re…">'Transparency' on Canada's site .

Governments providing http://www.cacities.org/Policy-Advocacy…">useable data

http://www.cacities.org/Policy-Advocacy…">Show priorities

Track http://track.dc.gov/">link text

http://data.dc.gov/">Open data

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/subsidy-tr…">Subsidy Tracker

http://www.ctbaonline.org/resources/glo…">Terms to know about Transparency

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/pu…">Bahamas government does not use consultation or e-decision making on it's website.

https://data.undp.org/page/projects">UN Development Projects Missing.

What about our http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries">Human Development Index ( < type in "Bahamas" and other comparable countries in then box, then scroll over the name to have it appear highlighted in the graph at the right) Barbados is the only predominantly black member country of OECD btw. See how http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/coun…">Brazil is doing in quality of life. We are just below the "Very high human development" bracket with a HDI of .794 .

So what's the problem?

http://www.ioc.state.il.us/index.cfm/fi…">4: http://accountability.illinois.gov/Expe… http://www.openbook.illinoiscomptroller…

http://www.cacities.org/Policy-Advocacy…">7: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/… http://publicpay.ca.gov/

killemwitdakno 10 years, 5 months ago

We have an atrocity of criminals licensing themselves as professionals via a network supported , if not established, by the government. You have elected a mob.

Production in waves violates the rights of the public. The incomplete and haphazard production is highly suspect and suggestive that they are withholding documents. The history of discovery misconduct overwhelmingly demonstrates this government’s bad faith. All the rushing, stonewalling, obfuscating, and disrespectful provisions of only marginally satisfactory answers to the majority of discovery requests. It is unethical and it falls under Abuse of Discovery. They are rigging the date of all of these distracting events, VAT, constitution referendum, carnival, WTO, all to obfuscate the the dates which matter, oil drilling and WTO.

It is Unequal Bargaining Power: This occurs where one party has an unreasonable advantage of the other. This is usually proved if one party is aware that the other obviously did not understand the contract terms. It's illegal. They can be sued for interfering with our inheritance under Public Trust. The objections to our requests are Unduly Burdensome and OPPRESSIVE.

We need another operation Casablanca. The U.S.-Bahamas Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) facilitates the bilateral exchange of information and evidence for use in criminal proceedings. The MLAT can be used to pierce Bahamian bank secrecy laws where credible evidence exists of narcotics crimes, money laundering, or other serious offenses. The GCOB is generally responsive to MLAT requests, yet in some instances the USG has not been able to obtain a satisfactory response. Start with whatever happened to "Bank Al Taqwa" !!

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