The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FNM Senator Carl Bethel yesterday said that Killarney MP Dr Hubert Minnis made a full disclosure in the House of Assembly over his company’s contract with the government while he was minister of health.

Mr Bethel, who is Dr Minnis’ legal advisor, said the disclosure was made while he sat in Parliament as the representative for the Seabreeze constituency; however, he could not pinpoint the exact date.

He also blasted Minister of State for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez as “ignorant” for his intention to file an Election Court petition to have Dr Minnis’ seat in Parliament vacated over alleged violation of the Constitution’s conflict of interest rules.

“There is nothing to Gomez’s claims,” Mr Bethel said when contacted.

“Dr Minnis made the disclosure in the 2007 or 2008 budget debate, and the Hansard will reflect it. I sat in Parliament. The PLP raised the issue and Dr Minnis stood up and gave a full disclosure.”

Mr Bethel added: “It was Gomez, in ignorance, either not knowing that a disclosure was made before he came into office or forgot that it was raised before.”

Mr Gomez has accused Dr Minnis of contravention of Article 49 of the Constitution, which states that if a member of Parliament does not get approval from the House of Assembly or the Senate to have a contract with the government, he has to vacate his seat.

The disputed contract in question is the Stat Care lease agreement signed between a company which Dr Minnis has interests in and the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) in 2005, before he entered politics. The arrangement was continued while Dr Minnis served as health minister from 2007 to 2012 and continues on a month-to-month basis.

Dr Minnis has said the issue is a moot point because he disclosed the matter after he was elected.

He has also said that while he was minister of health he ordered the PHA to move its facility, however the agency has not yet done so, reportedly because it cannot find a suitable alternative.

Mr Bethel argued that the Constitution did not specify that the disclosure be repeated in a successive term.

“He disclosed to Parliament,” he said, “that’s all the Constitution required. Once an issue was raised you make a disclosure.”

“For a week and a half no one has discussed the fundamental allegation against the Attorney General (Allyson Maynard-Gibson), which she has admitted. This is all political.”

Yesterday, Dr Minnis told The Tribune that he was more concerned about the national and international implications surrounding the Baha Mar debacle, and would not be distracted by political diversions.

The allegations against Dr Minnis resurfaced last week after his repeated calls for Mrs Maynard-Gibson to resign over conflict of interest concerns regarding mega resort Baha Mar.

Mr Gomez has also accused FNM Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner of violating the same article of the Constitution. The alleged conflict with Mrs Butler-Turner reportedly centres on a government department renting space from the Milo B Butler and Sons building.

Mrs Butler-Turner told The Tribune on Monday that she was not involved with this in any way, and has announced that she plans to sue Mr Gomez for criminal defamation of character. Mr Gomez claims he has documents to prove otherwise. However, he has not made them public.