The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

MICHAEL Halkitis, former State Minister for Finance, denies Financial Secretary Marlon Johnson's remarks that the Christie administration understated its travel budget.

In a statement released yesterday, Mr Halkitis said Mr Johnson's remarks were "materially incorrect" and not reflective of the budgeting done under his tenure as state minister.

On Monday, Mr Johnson told The Nassau Guardian that while the travel budget for the current government was increased, these figures are simply accurate representations of expenses that were "not properly budgeted and accounted for" under the last Progressive Liberal Party government.

Mr Johnson said the Christie administration had travel "centralised," which allowed for "indiscriminate spending."

"It was not properly budgeted for and accounted for," he told The Guardian.

"So a lot of what seems like increases - and this is the point the minister made and there are some examples of them in the annex of some of the major ones - are just proper accounting for known commitments because the net impact of that is in years past the budget was effectively understated."

Mr Halkitis opened his statement by quoting these remarks.

He then said: "This is materially incorrect and does not accurately reflect the budgeting done when I was minister.

"All expenses for travel by the Bahamas government were estimated and budgeted for in accordance with known, understood and lawful procedures. To suggest otherwise is inaccurate."

Mr Halkitis claimed that the current government is trying to paint the PLP in a negative light, calling these remarks "political propaganda."

"The FNM budgeting exercise and narrative are simply an exercise in moving facts and figures around to suit the narrative that they wish to portray of some kind of misfeasance and blame the PLP," he said.

"That is not the role of the financial secretary. It is regrettable that not only is the information inaccurate but it is also putting once again in the mouths of a public servant, political propaganda that bears no or little relationship to the truth."

On May 29, Press Secretary Anthony Newbold told reporters that the Minnis administration's promised "travel spreadsheets" are expected to be released at the end of the year.

He added that the delay is to ensure that the reports are thorough, and include information such as delegation size, expenses, and location.

While in opposition, the Minnis-led Free National Movement criticised the former PLP administration for what it referred to as "wasteful expenditure" for travel allocations.

Throughout that term, the FNM criticised the PLP for both the frequency of trips and the size of the delegations.

When elected in May 2017, the Minnis administration promised to curtail government spending on travel and give the public a full accounting of every trip executed.

Those accounts, as proposed, would include details of the trip's location, duration and purpose.

To date, the expenses of only one trip taken by Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis have been disclosed.