The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE House of Assembly passed the revamped Freedom of Information Bill last night, hours after Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins launched a scathing critique of the legislation, saying the Christie administration’s track record during this term in office is proof of the government’s “bogus” attempt to portray it as transparent and accountable with its last minute push to pass the law.

As debate on the FOI Bill continued in Parliament yesterday, Dr Rollins said if the government was serious about giving Bahamians access to information, FOI would have been a priority on the legislative agenda.

He said there remained 206 unanswered questions on the House agenda, further proof of the government’s blatant disregard for transparency.

Dr Rollins went on to coin the phrase “full of it,” saying this should be used in reference to FOI.

His harsh criticisms of the Bill at times sparked several heated exchanges from Progressive Liberal Party members of Parliament, including Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald, Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell and Pinewood MP Khaalis Rolle.

Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP Philip “Brave” Davis and Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin were also forced to stand on points of order to refute claims made by Dr Rollins.

“This legislation gives no right to the public to access the transparent bidding process and the right to know who bids (or) for how much they bid and who receives government contracts,” Dr Rollins said. “There is nothing in this bill that would have guaranteed the public the right to know all the bids made to purchase the 51 per cent share of BTC in 2010 or why it was that the main bidder was allowed to enter the bidding process after the bid deadline had already passed.

“Nor does this Bill guarantee a right to know the terms of the purported buy back of two per cent of those shares since the PLP came to office.

“This FOI Bill does not create a requirement for the government to advertise all public service job openings and the criteria for the available jobs. We need laws that mandate the public listing of all job vacancies to guard against the corrosive effects of politics in the civil service.

“This bill gives too much power to the executive branch of government, particularly via wide ranging powers of exemption by the minister responsible, and makes the cost of appealing a refusal to grant access to any information unnecessarily costly by requiring that such an appeal be decided in the Supreme courts instead of the lower courts - magistrates courts.

“The bill creates too much potential for political victimisation in relation to the information managed by creating allowance for him to be removed due to misbehaviour with no definition of what misbehaviour is,” Dr Rollins said.

“The penalties for creating an offence under this bill are much too lenient. A $10,000 fine is easily payable by anyone who stands to lose hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars or political power if certain information is disclosed to the public. This bill under Section 17 allows the government to withhold from the public data regarding the number of work permits or citizenships granted to foreign nationals in any given time period.

“This bill is absolutely worthless in the absence of campaign finance legislation which requires donors and any donations being made of $1,000 or more to be matters of public record. Many of the decisions of government would be more readily understood if the public was made aware of the source of campaign funds donated to political parties.”

He also said: “When the government misleads the public by saying we’ve had four credit downgrades in less than two years simply because of Hurricanes Joaquin and Matthew and not their reckless spending to support friends, family and lovers we can better understand why our country’s credit rating has fallen to junk bond status under their watch.

“This government is not about providing Bahamians with the facts, Mr Speaker, this bill is not a Freedom of Information Bill, it is a ‘full of it’ bill designed to have the people believe that they did something that the prior Free National Movement administration did not do. If they believe so deeply in transparency and accountability, Mr Speaker, the Bahamian people would expect that this legislation would have been brought to the House as the first piece of legislation debated in 2012.”

Prior to these remarks, Dr Rollins pointed to the Bay Street development, The Pointe, saying the allowance of 400 to 500 work permits for foreign workers in the development’s heads of agreement raised questions of the ratio of Bahamian workers to Chinese workers.

Among a litany of accusations, some of which had to be withdrawn or expunged from the record, Dr Rollins also questioned whether a business connected to Mr Fitzgerald’s family had been directly impacted by Baha Mar’s bankruptcy in 2015.

The Marathon MP denied the assertion saying that while his father’s business has been in brokerage for about 40 years, he had no interest in these dealings.

The FOI Bill now moves on to the Senate for debate before it is passed there.