The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

OFFICIAL Opposition Leader Michael Pintard said the government should have been more measured in how it handled allegations about the Minnis administration’s food programme, adding that with recent developments it was duty bound to answer questions in Parliament.

He said the government also needed to establish a clear timeline regarding answering certain questions from the World Bank and when finance records and other information related to the food programme were provided to the government.

 He maintained that there had always been “institutional” memory in place regarding the National Food Distribution Task Force to corroborate how the programme was handled under the former government. He also accused some government ministers of misleading the House of Assembly on the matter.

 His comments came amid new developments that Social Services and Urban Development Minister Obie Wilchcombe received a stack of documents on the food programme from Mrs Susan Larson, chairperson of the now disbanded task force, in the days after he expressed “embarrassment” over being unable to answer key questions he claimed the World Bank wanted answered in relation to that programme, according to a Nassau Guardian report.

 While the minister could not be reached for comment yesterday, the documents Mrs Larson is said to have provided to him included the weekly financial reports the inclusive NGOs prepared, detailing how they handled taxpayer dollars, it was also reported.

 Those documents were also said to include a database of households that were being assisted and a report that the task force had previously prepared for the World Bank.

 On March 28, Mr Wilchcombe said the government had no data to provide to the World Bank, which provided funds for food assistance during the pandemic, in response to its questions.

 However, on March 30, Mrs Larson invited The Tribune and The Nassau Guardian to her Lyford Cay office to review the comprehensive volume of records related to the programme. She said the records were given to the government.

 ​Mr Pintard maintained that it appeared that the government attempted to mislead Bahamians on the matter.

 “My suspicion is they had access to the information and for whatever reason they did not request the information that they said was not valuable because it allowed them to make the case that they did make,” Mr Pintard said yesterday.

 “Now that you are in the chair you are able to share what the nature of the COVID spending was because you now had a fiduciary duty. They were feeding a narrative that amounted to no facts and deflecting. But the facts are there. It appears that with the facts becoming apparent they are now overwhelmed by that.

 “They have to go to the House (of Assembly) to clarify statements that were made. It would be useful to look at the consequences of misleading the House.

 “It would be useful to know when the reporting was made to the agency and was the government aware that the reporting was done because as I have always said the institutional memory is still in place.

 “So, it is my view that they could have been more measured really from the beginning.”

 Mr Pintard pointed to comments made in Parliament last month by Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis where he said investigations into the former government’s handling of the food assistance programme revealed some NGOs had held onto substantial amounts of money while adding the Parks and Beaches Authority had been used as a “slush fund”.

 Mr Davis also said there were some in the previous administration who viewed governance as an “extractive industry” and used public office to “enrich themselves”.

 Mr Pintard said generally the reputations of all involved had been sullied.

 “What you should not do is to sully all concerned,” he said, “because you are trying to make a hardline case. They talked about malfeasance and a government of extraction and those are very egregious and serious charges coming from the chief executive.

 “So, he is duty bound to go and clarify why he misled the House on this matter and what other matters had he misled on,” Mr Pintard said.