The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie denied assertions from the nation’s former leader, Hubert Ingraham, who said on Tuesday that no matter which party wins the May 10 election, the government will be unable to give officers overtime pay as promised because the money is not in the Public Treasury.

When asked if the treasury was broke, Mr Christie said: “No.”

He added: “Ask Mr Ingraham and I want to say it just like this: How was he paying civil servants when he was spending over $500m more than he was earning?

“How does a country do that? So if my treasury is broke and my deficit is nowhere near that deficit, tell him the same way he was able to run the country spending over $500m more than he was earning and keep on paying civil servants.

“Tell him that is why he knows when he uttered that statement exactly how I am going to pay the police officers on the 29th of May and they will be paid. He knows,” Mr Christie said.

Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis accused Mr Ingraham of “spreading propaganda” on the issue.

Mr Davis branded Mr Ingraham’s assertion that “the money ain’ there” in the Public Treasury to pay the officers as a “red herring,” telling reporters that he had no idea where the former FNM leader got his information.

While disclosing the state of the nation’s treasury, Mr Ingraham also told supporters in South Abaco on Tuesday night that if the FNM wins the election, one of the first things it will have to do is “borrow tens of millions of dollars to pay bills that the PLP government is now unable to pay” and thus will not be able to fulfil some of its campaign promises right away.

He also repeated the allegation that more than $800,000 was recently stolen from the Ministry of Finance, suggesting that theft was widespread in the public sector.

“I don’t know where he got his information from and I think it’s just a red herring that was brought about to put fear in the officers,” Mr Davis told reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s disastrous advanced poll where members of the armed forces and others voted at the Kendal G L Isaacs Gymnasium ahead of next week’s general election.

He continued: “I guess it’s political season and he wants to inspire them to vote for the FNM by spreading propaganda.”

Meanwhile, incumbent PLP Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller agreed that he believed Mr Ingraham was spewing “propaganda”, as he insisted that in his view, the former prime minister’s comments about the status of the treasury or the missing money from the Ministry of Finance would not be problematic for the PLP.

Mr Miller said: “Mr Ingraham has come up with more outrageous statements since he got back about the money that was stolen. I was somewhat taken aback by a man who’s been the prime minister for three terms.

“If he knows that money was stolen from the treasury, the (former) prime minister knows exactly what to do. He knows the Commissioner of Police (Ellison Greenslade), he knows who to go to. Report the case and those people who are thought to be responsible should then be hauled before the courts. That’s what I would think he should do.”

Mr Miller added: “I mean he knows more about that than you, me and any other Bahamian in this country. People like he and the current prime minister knows what’s going on. So I don’t see it as a problem. I just see it as really propaganda. That’s what I see it as, political propaganda, between him and the PM.”

Mr Ingraham’s remarks have been viewed by some observers as a last minute bid to sway those who voted in the advanced poll in the FNM’s favour.

Mr Ingraham told supporters at a rally in South Abaco: “You know after years of fighting the Police (Staff) Association . . . and ignoring the court order, they finally agreed that they are going to pay overtime to the police.

“Unfortunately they ain’ ga be around when they say they going to pay. They said they going to pay on the 28th or the 29th of May, well they ga be gone long time by then.

“And so the police officers and the defence force officers and all others who are voting (Wednesday) be assured that the FNM will honour the judgment of the court.

“And speaking for myself, there is no way that either the FNM or the PLP going to be able to pay you on the 28th or 29th of May. The treasury ain’t got that money. They money ain’t there. Don’t let nobody lie to you.”

Mr Ingraham also responded to the Ministry of Finance’s statement issued Tuesday, calling on him to provide information to police on his allegation Monday that more than $800,000 had been stolen from the ministry.

The ministry has denied that this sum was stolen.

“They got the information,” Mr Ingraham said on Tuesday night. “They want know what I know.”

He added: “Do you believe the police will be motivated to investigate this allegation eight days before the general election when in the meantime they have yet to deal with the multiple reports on the allegations of abuse in government departments?”

He referred to several outstanding investigations or unresolved allegations from Auditor General Terrance Bastian over the past few years which have faded from headlines and questioned if anything ever came of these matters, including $700,000 in cash and cheques not deposited on the Department of Customs’ bank account in Abaco.

This matter was first reported in 2014.