The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said yesterday the Public Accounts Committee will look into the 2017-2018 budget presented by the Free National Movement government to ensure that public money expended is done so appropriately.

Mr Davis, the Official Opposition leader, is the PAC’s chairman. The committee is also comprised of two members from the majority side: Centreville MP Reece Chipman and Golden Gates MP Michael Foulkes. Exuma and Ragged Island MP I Chester Cooper and South Andros MP Picewell Forbes are the remaining opposition members of the PAC.

The Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP could not say exactly when the PAC will begin its work.

“(We will do) what is mandated by the rules of the House (of Assembly) both in practice and in convention,” Mr Davis said. “That is what we will do and that will be to look at the budgetary expenditure that has to be approved by the House at the end of this budget debate and we will ensure that those expenditures are appropriately expended.”

The Minnis administration projects borrowing more than $722m to cover inherited outstanding bills along with the costs associated with running the country moving forward, after discovering the current fiscal year is “far bleaker” than anyone could have imagined as the Christie administration left “the cupboard bare,” according to Finance Minister K Peter Turnquest.

Mr Turnquest has explained that $400m is needed to satisfy expenditure for the past year, while $322,462,707m will be borrowed for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, amounting to a whopping $722,462,707m.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has strongly criticised this, describing it as “unprecedented” levels of borrowing.

Following the introduction of resolutions to the House of Assembly to borrow the seismic sum of money, Mr Davis blamed Hurricane Matthew, a shortfall in income revenue and a reduction in taxes for a $400m overrun in the country’s GFS deficit.

He accused the FNM of providing “a false narrative” to cover for the fact that “they cannot live up to what they promised in the general election.”

He said the FNM made “wild promises based on a lack of understanding of the economy” and now that they are in the government they have to face the reality.

The GFS deficit at the end of June is projected at $500m, according to Mr Turnquest, five times the $100m forecast by the Christie administration, which was voted out of office on May 10.