The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

CALLING a snap election has left “several outstanding issues unresolved,” which are “now at risk”, a governance reformer has warned.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, told Tribune Business that these issues included not having a fixed election date to begin with. He also lamented the lack of traction on making the Freedom of Information office operational as “the Act is not fully enacted”.

 He said: “We have public procurement, which may happen very shortly, it has not yet been fully enacted. We have the integrity Commission Bill that now is off of the agenda as well as the Ombudsman Bill is off of the agenda.

“Public Finance legislation is still pending and the emergency powers legislation is still pending. So you know as that all comes off of the docket, it all becomes in my estimation at risk, so the hope is that the party that wins the election will pick these things back up in earnest and push them forward to achieve accountability, transparency that is due the Bahamian people.”

With the parliament being prorogued on Wednesday and fully dissolved yesterday, all pending legislation that was not passed has to be tabled again under a new format and title.

“This disrupts the business community now because the focus is going to be on trying to focus on and discern who is going to get in and how they are going to get in, when businesses are trying to keep focus on where they are coming back in the Fall with a strong business, the election now becomes the driver attention,” he said.

“This is not dissimilar in any election season, as soon as the election is set there’s going to be a focus and an attention on it. But because this is done in a snap it does create a little bit of a different focus.

“I think that particularly given our times post COVID, having things a little bit more planned out and mapped out becomes a better resource for businesses, for civil society and for anybody in the private sector, because that’s how you’re trying to plan your expenditures, your operation and what you need to do.”

Despite leaving a lot of initiatives on the table, ORG will continue to push ahead with the new government on the matters that they think the civil society would want to be focused on. “We also advocate very strongly for the inclusion of civil society in the non-profit sector, we know from COVID-19 and Hurricane Dorian, how vital these groups have been to ensuring the welfare of our communities.

“Things like education, driving innovation in the private sector, we need to shift folks from having jobs in government that may not be as effective as moving into and creating a place in the private sector where they can be effective. We have to prepare them to be successful and resilient and purposeful. That change is a difference,” Mr Aubry said.