The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I hope that you all had an enjoyable and safe Independence weekend, as I and my immediate family did. It was a time of reflection on the mighty long way which The Lord Jesus Christ has brought us. Yes, the incessant and debilitating challenges of inflation and the ongoing ravages of the pandemic and a lot more distractions relative to crime and sociological behaviour within the wider Bahamian society.

It is my sober submission that a large part of the current national debt was generated when the former Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Hubert A Minnis (FNM - Killarney) held sway in this blessed nation, for a hiccup of a shortened termed in office, thanks be to God. The cries of the people went up and the Lord had mercy on a grateful nation.

Fiscal accountability and responsibility must be the hall marks of good governance and transparency. There are and should be no short cuts. As Competent Authority, Dr Minnis appeared to ride roughshod over the populace. He alone, as a one man band, was able to award bids on governmental contracts, without bid, allegedly, to whomever he chose. What was the value of those contracts and who got them? Dr Minnis was duty bound under the Emergency Powers act and regulations thereunder, to lay statements on the table of the House of Assembly, at prescribed intervals. He never, as far as I am aware, ever laid one.

The ongoing, seemingly, inability of the administration and some prominent NGO’s to resolve simple forensic and accounting disputes is mind boggling. My recommendation to the Hon Dr Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, OC, MP, is to call for the Governor General, the hard working and much respected, Sir C A Smith, to appoint a Royal Commission of Inquiry to unearth, in a public way, what went down under the enabling authority of the Emergency Powers Act.

No one that I know of, least of all myself, would appear to be going after a witch haunt. Where the people’s monies are concerned, however, especially in the peak of an endemic, must be accounted for. There are no sacred cows; tin gods or iron men. No doubt, there are other ministerial departments which might require forensic auditing. Let the chips fall where they may.

Congratulations to the new Commissioner of Police, a man after my own heart and his stellar team. More importantly of all, let us always remember the contributions of those Bahamians and nation builders who by blood, sweat and tears, would have brought us thus far, with the ever present help of The Lord Jesus Christ.

ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr

Nassau,

July 9, 2022.