Former Prime Minister Perry Christie.
By RICARDO WELLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
rwells@tribunemedia.net
DEPUTY Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest has dismissed former Prime Minister Perry Christie’s recent defence of the former government, saying the former Centreville MP was attempting to distract the country from his party’s “many unfortunate acts of lack of judgment”.
The East Grand Bahama MP added that despite Mr Christie’s calls for a “dispassionate examination of the record,” the Bahamian people will act as the final judge on the inadequacies and failures of the former government.
Last Thursday, during a lengthy interview at his Cable Beach home, Mr Christie defended his administration from accusations of irresponsible spending, misfeasance and cronyism.
In the interview, which has since renewed public discussions on the Christie administration’s handling of several key matters during its time in office, the former prime minister said he was “disappointed” by the allegations being tossed around by the new government.
Hitting back at accusations from members of the Minnis administration concerning the controversial pay out of more than $8m to one vendor for hurricane clean up and the write off of $1.2m to an airport tenant who was in arrears, Mr Christie described recent moves made by the government as a “misstep” by a party pandering to its base.
Mr Christie maintained that a review of documents on these two controversies would absolve his administration of any wrongdoing and prove that much of the FNM’s rhetoric is as nothing more than “political slogans.”
However, in direct response to the claims on Sunday, Mr Turnquest said the Minnis administration was not orchestrating a targeted attack on the former government, its leader or any of its members.
Mr Turnquest, who is also minister of finance, maintained that the new government is only attempting to clarify how the country arrived at its current financial state and rectify any ongoing mismanagement throughout the public sector.
“Clearly the former PM is attempting to move away from the many unfortunate acts of lack of judgment occurring over the last five years. The facts will speak for themselves as they develop and the Bahamian people will be the judge,” Mr Turnquest told The Tribune.
He added: “We will not be forced into a timeline. The process will take as long as it takes with transparency and fairness to all concerned.”
Since beating the PLP in a landslide election on May 10, the Minnis administration has laid out several instances in which the former government made decisions resulting in over-spending and alleged misfeasance.
In the weeks following these revelations, several senior members of the PLP have attempted to defend the party’s actions, with the strongest case from former Deputy Prime Minister and current Official Opposition Leader Philip “Brave” Davis.
Mr Davis has accused Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis of seeking to portray members of the PLP as “crooks” in an attempt to cover “his inability to lead.”
This led to a response from the Office of the Prime Minister, urging the PLP to seek redemption from the Bahamian people, and not attempt to explain away or justify “years of mismanaging the country.”
The Minnis administration has ordered forensic audits into Urban Renewal, Bank of the Bahamas (BOB) and the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI), among other areas.
Moreover, all Cabinet ministers have been asked to conduct audits within their respective ministries.
Comments
birdiestrachan 7 years, 5 months ago
Mr Christie does not have a poor record. everything the FNM and the news media said the PLP did wrong they can correct. Start with the removal of VAT so that the poor people who they claimed could not buy groceries will be made whole. They can close the web shops. They can give the hotel back to Sarkis who they claim should have his property back. they can send the Chinese investor or investors back to China. For those who voted FNM do not be fooled. the FNM can fix all of the above which they claimed was wrong.
Tarzan 7 years, 5 months ago
"Mr. Christie does not have a poor record."
You are right. "Poor" cannot be used to describe Mr. Christie's record. Poor is not nearly broad enough to cover the level of corrupt, malfeasance he imposed on the country.
concernedcitizen 7 years, 5 months ago
Birdie Birdie Birdie ,,63 % of Bahamians said loudly that we had horrible governance from 2012 to 2017 , and PGC was a large part of it .Are you saying 63% of your fellow Bahamians are not very astute or easily conned .
realfreethinker 7 years, 5 months ago
Go away birdie
proudloudandfnm 7 years, 5 months ago
Has anyone seen our Prime Minister lately? Is he in the country? Hello!?!?!? Mr. Pm where are you? Will you actually lead at any point soon?!?!? Or will DPm Turnquest run the country for 5 years????
Tarzan 7 years, 5 months ago
Better than the last one. In the country stealing!
BahamasForBahamians 7 years, 5 months ago
Well it appears as if their stealing antics aren't exposed until end of the term. Lord help us when we find out how much Minnis them would've raped from the purse after 2022..
sheeprunner12 7 years, 5 months ago
KPT should not get in a spat with Perry ............ Perry is a dead man walking
ThisIsOurs 7 years, 5 months ago
Thought it was strange as well...why is he concerned? I suspect he's making the statement to shift focus to the PLP's record. He's still on the campaign trail, if he's still doing this after 50 days, he's going to be occupied with busy work and magic tricks for the next five years.
TalRussell 7 years, 5 months ago
Comrades! Many 'unfortunate acts of lack of judgment' by the former PLP regime - .she's a toned down tone of a far cry from how members Red Regime had so quickly taken to describing the actions by members the previous PLP
SP 7 years, 5 months ago
I wasn't interested and didn't waste my time listening to anything Perry Christie had to say before May 10th, and I'm sure not interested or wasting time to listen to him now!
Believer 7 years, 5 months ago
In my view the PM is not concerned with flowery speeches and becoming a "celebrity" constantly on display, but doing what he does best; administration. That is what is required in good Government. The people have become accustomed to lawyer / politicians who use empty words and fail to realize that politicians are elected to serve them. Be patient. The new Government has to understand what they have inherirated- which is a process, and audits will, and should, take time.
We should all be in prayer for good, honest Government.
Porcupine 7 years, 5 months ago
Prayer? To whom? Do not sully any God with having a part in the sordid affairs here. We simply need some adults at the table. And, all we can find are children
BahamasForBahamians 7 years, 5 months ago
What are the signs of this new PM working?
There is not much evidence to prove this.. Apart from the hundreds of terminations conducted upon entrance to office.
ThisIsOurs 7 years, 5 months ago
"flowery speeches and becoming a "celebrity" constantly on display,"
You've just described KP perfectly, I got that impression in the run up to the election, that he was playing to the cameras, nothing of any substance just sexy sounding buzz words and still it continues.
As to being patient and Dr Minnis working behind the scenes, I'm sorry, but that is not governance. The people have to know where you're headed. The signals they're sending us are not good. They are right in step with the last administration, using parliament to attack private citizens, cherry picking who they identify for public scrutiny, empty meaningless pronouncements, backtracking, refusing to admit mistakes, ministers each on their own run and no central plan or governing strategy. This is nothing to be patient about. It's very worrying.
It wouldn't have taken a day for someone to get up and say what the overriding objective was for the next five years, break that down into broad achievable targets and give some guesstimated timelines. If you get new information you come back in your regular updates and you adjust your targets. THAT is strategic planning, what they are doing is "planning as you go" which always leads to missed timelines, blown budgets and confusion... I take that back it's better described as "doing something and hoping for the best", the word "plan" shouldn't be included in the description
John 7 years, 5 months ago
The comments of Fred Mitchell about financial disclosures is most sickening, disgusting but clearly sums up the personality of the PLP: they pass laws they don't intend to abide by and will scream like a lil B*tch when you try to enforce the law on them. And the reason Freddy have to go hire a consultant team to find out why him and his PLP lost the election is because he cannot go in Fox Hill like he use to. The Fox Hill guys dem tell to carry 'his funny toolbox' cause the finish with him. for tru this time.
licks2 7 years, 5 months ago
I don't want to hear anything from the whole bunch in the PLP. . .
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