The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Minnis Administration hasn’t set a timeline for tabling legislation to regulate the financial operations of political parties, according to press secretary Anthony Newbold.

The issue was billed as a major priority for Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis while in opposition, increasingly so in the months leading up to the 2017 general election.

“There’s no timeline yet that I can give you on that,” said Mr Newbold at yesterday’s press briefing.

“There are a lot of bills, five, six, seven are going to be laid on the table (today). There’s no timeline on that campaign finance bill but it has been discussed and will be brought.”

Attorney General Carl Bethel has said the administration has numerous bills and amendments ready to be tabled. Most fit into the administration’s broad agenda of good governance, one that aims to improve or create mechanisms for transparency and accountability in the country.

These include legislation that will be tabled today to establish an Integrity Commission and an Ombudsman office. However, amid all the administration’s discussion of its “compendium” of bills, campaign finance legislation has not been mentioned.

The money political parties receive and the identity of donors remain one of the political establishment’s most intensely guarded secrets.

Former Prime Minister Perry Christie said in 2012 that campaign financing has sunken in the country to “repugnant” and even “criminal levels,” but his administration did nothing to address the issue.

Former Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, who hopes to become chairman of the party at its upcoming convention, has since the election said it was a “mistake” for the previous administration not to enact campaign finance legislation.

One bill expected to be tabled today is the Commercial Enterprises bill, designed to attract “new and diverse businesses that are not looking at the Bahamas because of the rigidities that affect new businesses in this country”.

Others include: an Ombudsman Bill; an Integrity Commissions Bill; an Interception of Communication Bill; a National Intelligence Agency BIll; the Inner-City Designation of Tax Free Zones Bill; the Constitutional Amendment for the Department of Public Prosecutions; a Gaming House Regulations amendment; the Companies Regulations; the Companies Amendment Act; Non-Profit organizations regulations; the Civil Aviation Amendments Act, the Civil Aviation Accident Investigations amendment; bills to create a national arbitration centre; and three land bills to “bring in a system of land registration” and “stop the rich and famous tiefing (sic) Bahamian people lands.”