The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE missteps of the Christie administration should not spoil Philip “Brave” Davis’ leadership ambitions, former parliamentarians Philip Galanis and George Smith said, telling The Tribune yesterday Mr Davis was “out of the loop” in the administration after former Prime Minister Perry Christie became “insecure” over his leadership threat and began

undermining him because of this. 

Mr Christie, they said, removed programmes that would typically remain in the remit of the Ministry of Works in order to wound Mr Davis’ ambitions while showing favouritism toward less senior Cabinet ministers.

Their statements come as Mr Davis seeks to cement his leadership of the party at its convention in October despite calls from some for the “old guard” of the Progressive Liberal Party  to make way for politicians untainted by its recent history.  

Though allies of Mr Christie pushed back against their characterisation of the relationship between Mr Davis and Mr Christie yesterday, it was backed by at least one former Cabinet minister in the Christie administration who spoke to The Tribune on the condition of anonymity.

“(Mr Christie) did stuff to prevent projects from starting and in essence that’s one of the reasons we lost the election,” the former Cabinet minister told The Tribune. “Everything had been postponed to the last minute. Davis was minister of works and almost all of these things would’ve been a bad reflection on him because people wouldn’t say the Ministry of Finance held up the money, they would say ‘Brave’ didn’t do his job. It was a concerted effort to discredit him. It started to happen probably in the second year, and the closer we got to the date for Christie to (expectedly) retire the worse it got. If he had allowed Davis to do his job, the unpopularity of that government would’ve been assuaged.”

During his contribution to the budget debate in May, Works Minister Desmond Bannister hinted that Mr Davis was undermined as minister of works.

While criticising the former administration’s management of public private partnerships, Mr Bannister said: “(The member for) Cat Island (Mr Davis) can’t help us to unravel this puzzle. They stripped him naked starting in 2015. His own people started taking power away from him. Took all the roadside and park contracts. Didn’t let him know about the public private partnerships. Cat Island has got to be feeling good that he’s back here while the fella who stripped him is gone. I know I won’t hear a point of order on that.”

Meanwhile, Mr Smith’s comments came after he told The Tribune he doesn’t support Obie Wilchcombe for chairman of the PLP because he’s a part “of the old guard.”

Asked how he could then support Mr Davis for party leader, the former Exuma MP said: “Davis gets a pass in terms of being blamed because they kept him out of the loop. Yes there’s a concept of collective responsibility and everyone should shoulder some blame. But in terms of being active, Mr Davis wasn’t that. Christie felt insecure and he gave the impression that he was uncomfortable with Davis’ ambitions. That’s how he ran his Cabinet. “Ryan Pinder resigned because he didn’t like the way it was being operated. Damian Gomez got out because he also didn’t like the way it was operated,” Mr Smith said.

For his part, Mr Galanis, a former senator, said: “Mr Christie was so insecure in his position as leader that because ‘Brave’ decided to challenge him he decided to ostracise him. He had a fear that he may not win and I’m happy that kind of leadership is gone. It began around September 2015 when I came out very much in support of ‘Brave’ to be leader to take us in the next election. So Mr Christie began not sharing information and sometimes even became belligerent with persons who suggested they would support others and not him.”

Mr Christie, sources said, believed the Ministry of Works allowed Mr Davis to develop relationships with many people seeking contracts and opportunities, relationships that could have proven politically beneficial.

“By stripping him of his powers in that ministry, the people who have contracts with the government would otherwise not meet ‘Brave,’” the former Cabinet minister said.

Latrae Rahming, a former press aide to Mr Christie, disagreed with such characterisations of Mr Christie’s relationship with Mr Davis yesterday. 

“I think it is disingenuous to suggest that the former prime minister would isolate ‘Brave’ from key governmental decisions,” he said. “Brave was a part of Christie’s kitchen Cabinet and often chaired Christie’s Cabinet in his absence. He was always consulted and the then prime minister always admired his counsel. The conclusion to remove items outside ‘Brave’s’ portfolio was grounded in the fact that the substantive ministry was large and roads and parks were removed to a newly created Beaches and Parks Authority under the Ministry of Environment. The public private partnership operated outside of the Ministry of Finance given the nature of the process and the Ministry of Works was consulted for engineering work.”

Among the Christie administration policies for which Mr Davis had responsibility were the construction of the Bahamas Agriculture & Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) and oversaw the selection of PowerSecure to manage Bahamas Power & Light (BPL).

PowerSecure is off to a rocky start with the Minnis administration, with BPL’s board demanding this week that the company “cure all deficiencies and/or breaches” of its agreement with the government at a time when Bahamians have been displeased with the company’s service.