ATTORNEY General Carl Bethel said his office has not received any files in relation to complaints of misconduct of former government officials.
He said whatever information that is sent to the Office of the Attorney General in the future will be dealt with under due process. However, he added, the many allegations against the former administration that have emerged from the House of Assembly warranting criminal prosecution have other avenues of redress.
His statement came days after Works Minister Desmond Bannister told Parliament that some members of the Christie administration are “guilty” of misfeasance, adding that Mr Bethel will have to determine if they should be held liable for the “millions” in taxpayer dollars that were awarded in questionable contracts.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said in the House of Assembly that the attorney general and minister of state for legal affairs have both been asked to review the Christie administration’s decision to drop its hurricane insurance policy with the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility. Dr Minnis said this move meant the government missed out on a more than $31m insurance payout.
“We’ve not received any documentation as yet on any of those particular concerns that may have been expressed in the House of Assembly,” Mr Bethel told reporters yesterday.
“I’m not prepared to prejudge, I have no information apart from what I may have read in the newspapers and as I said, anything referred to the Attorney General’s Office, whether by another minister or by the general public is referred to the appropriate officials for the appropriate treatment.”
On whether recent allegations against the former government may be criminal, Mr Bethel said: “I’m not sure that the prime minister would have gone that far as to indicate possible prosecutions and I wouldn’t either. I would say that the law is sufficiently mature, common law, that certain acts could either be dealt with civilly, in civil law, or in some other way.
“But I do not believe that anything that’s been said by anyone in Parliament has gone to the extent of raising any criminal concerns.”
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 6 months ago
As I've said time and time again, Minnis and his cabinet ministers have been giving us nothing but a whole helluva lot of lip service about holding senior officials in the last government accountable and responsible for all of the waste, fraud, corruption and outright theft that occurred as a result of the many abuses of public office and the public trust. Not one senior official is going to face charges for criminal wrong-doing despite the umpteen laws broken time and time again. My oh my.....please say it ain't so....but I sure did tell ya so! Just look at that devious wry smile on Carl Bethel's face.....he knows the voters 'gat swing' big time by Minnis!!
DDK 7 years, 6 months ago
You sure did warn us, over and over again! Please say it ain't so is right!
MonkeeDoo 7 years, 6 months ago
http://www.gingersoftware.com/english-o…
These people got three possible charges for what they have done. If one can't stick use the other.
No more swingin for me.
TalRussell 7 years, 6 months ago
Comrades! This is when the Red Bloggers go all silent rather than facing their coming to Jesus moment with the con job the reds pulled off on voters..... If they lied to the voters during the 2017 General Election - then why believe them now?
BahamasForBahamians 7 years, 5 months ago
Tell them Tal lol
sheeprunner12 7 years, 6 months ago
Hollow name and shame spree ......... While the PLP thieves spend their ill-gotten cash
jusscool 7 years, 6 months ago
Almost sounds as if the personnel involved in investigating these matter does really wanna tread too close to actual true findings in this case. If I were to drive around town in my car without paper work and got caught .What would you think will happen? Or if i opened up business without any documents. Do you think the government would persecute me?
jusscool 7 years, 6 months ago
Receiving files meant either the file were there and then it wasn't. Or it wasn't there to begin with!
Truism 7 years, 6 months ago
SUPRISE, Surprise, surprise... NOT. Let's not now all come to the same conclusion, but, it appears as if the realization has finally set in that the election campaign is over and what was presented on the rally stage cannot be delivered on the real stage. The AG just telling us now, can't charge someone with a crime that's just assumed. It's a crime what these clowns have done to us though. Nobody's going to jail. We're not gonna be allowed to purge.. BOL
John 7 years, 6 months ago
Think is time to go get some of these padded government contacts. Tired of working like a slave, paying all these taxes and can hardly buy food while these blood suckers living large off the fat of the land and without fear of prosecution
screwedbahamian 7 years, 6 months ago
Look like the large private cocktail parties have taken place welcoming the new boys and girls on the blocks into the brotherhood of secrecy governance. Have the Bahamian Peoples time ended. Have the Bahamian people been swing again.
Baha10 7 years, 6 months ago
Wow ... sounds like "The People" really did get swing! Sad, sad moment for "The People" as optimism for the future fades.
Reality_Check 7 years, 6 months ago
Re-post: An overwhelming majority of Bahamian voters gave Minnis and his FNM government an unequivocal mandate, based on the many promises made during the election campaign, to investigate the major instances of corruption, fraud and outright theft involving senior officials in the last government and their PLP cronies in the private sector. We the people expect these individuals to be held accountable and responsible under the rule of law for their crimes against us and our country. Minnis will not get more than one year at most to do this. By then, if he fails, the level of widespread public discontentment will reach a crescendo and the long knives will be drawn by very influential and ambitious members of the FNM. And you can be rest assured one of the longer knives will be unsheathed by none other than Carl Bethel himself. Minnis had better carefully watch his back and make sure what he promised gets done by the most transparent means possible without any cute and coy interference by the AG with the proper outcome of justice that must be meated out to restore the public's confidence in government.
ohdrap4 7 years, 6 months ago
well, there is such a thing as 'soft corruption'. Like skirting general orders. i think they said a number of contracts were issued in the MOE in the past few months. they should try to determine how many of those folks were on month-to-month, and , leading up to the election, the departments were rushing to get contracts approved, 'just in case' the government changes.
i think this was repeated in several ministries, and the people in this practice should be reprimanded and demoted.
the civil servants ought to be thoroughly embarrassed to have every new hire 'approved by cabinet'.
Truism 7 years, 6 months ago
Why? They weren't embarrassed to get salary deductions to buy shares in the port at Arawak Cay. Kinda known for subscribing to pure dumbness. LOL
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