Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis.
By LETRE SWEETING
lsweeting@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis yesterday responded to the Free National Movement’s calls for Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears to resign, saying that the FNM is “crying wolf” again.
He made these comments yesterday in the Pinecrest subdivision where the keys to some 18 new homes in the subdivision were presented to homeowners.
This comes three days after FNM leader Michael Pintard said in the parking lot of the Office of the Prime Minister that Mr Sears should resign due to the “failure of the government to act appropriately to reduce the cost of electricity”.
After Mr Sears had said in The House of Assembly last Wednesday that the Ministry of Finance rejected several proposals for hedge trades to be executed for Bahamas Power and Light last fall, to avoid a 163 percent increase in the BPL fuel surcharge, Mr Davis maintained yesterday that he had no knowledge of the proposals.
“I had no knowledge of it. He (Mr Sears) said the Ministry of Finance had knowledge of it. That’s a big ministry. That was not me,” Mr Davis said.
“I saw no documents about that. But this weekend I was provided with information concerning that, I am now assessing to determine all the misstatements about what actually went on. What I do know is that the financial secretary had some views about it proceeding and I think those were the views that were adopted,” he said.
He added that the FNM’s calls for Mr Sears’ resignation is, “the wolf crying again”.
On Friday, Mr Pintard said, “The Minister of Works and the Prime Minister on their feet in the House of Assembly denied that they got any briefing notes, they were not advised of any recommendations that could have saved the Bahamian people what we now believe to be over $100 million that we are on the hook for.
“The Minister of Works was even more egregious, his transgression wasn’t just by judgement and not accepting solid recommendations. His transgression was seeking to cover up the bad judgement that he and his colleagues, and certainly the Minister of Finance, has the greatest responsibility,” he said.
“The bottom line is he made the point that the prime minister and he were fully aware. I don’t believe there’s any other recourse for that minister, but to resign, it is the appropriate thing to do,” Mr Pintard said.
On November 16, Mr Pintard accused Mr Sears of “misleading Parliament” after he admitted that the Davis administration rejected proposals and recommendations “that had the potential to save the Bahamian people $100m”.
Mr Pintard told Tribune Business at the time that he and other Opposition MPs were left “stunned” after Mr Sears said that the Ministry of Finance had dismissed recommendations to continue the trades, calling BPL’s fuel hedging initiative “not in the interests of the country at that time”.
Mr Sears responded, “The Minister of Finance communicated that based on what was presented, it was not supported. That determination was communicated in October 2021. What is the relevance of this new revelation?”
Mr Sears declined to speak further on the matter when approached by reporters at the House of Assembly on November 16.
Comments
Porcupine 2 years ago
Who cares about your petty nonsense. Ask the question, "Are the Bahamian people better off, or worse off"? Over and over, we have to answer, "We, the Bahamian people are worse off" This is not up for debate. Stop the nonsense. Use your limited time and effort to fix the problem. Is this a national trait? None of us ever do wrong. It is always someone else's fault. And yet, time after time we have to read and listen to the crap that spews forth from our "leaders" Fix the F-ing problem. Stop the crap. We are getting screwed daily by inflated prices, unfair regressive taxation and poor oversight of all of our state owned enterprises, and the greed, machismo, and power hungry little people who supposedly work for us. Our country is severely in debt. We have a bad reputation, deserved or not. We seem unable to govern. Anyone paying attention can see that crime will continue to rise, the poor will get poorer, and the bad decisions made on our behalf will be coming due in short order. The rich in this country will continue to game the system so that they get richer, wielding ever more power over our politicians. Who cares that so many of our richest are sociopaths, if not outright criminals. They have money. They must be smart. We don't seem to care that the only thing they care about is themselves. What does this say about us? Presently, as I see it, The Bahamas is on a dead end road for its people. So, whose fault is this? Let be serious, just for one moment.
Sickened 2 years ago
At least the FNM are crying along with the population at large. Davis on the other hand is smiling and dancing all while flying around the world with his entourage and spending OUR hard earned money. GOD really needs to get involved now and purge our country of all the evil sucking off the teat of the consolidated fund.
ThisIsOurs 2 years ago
Unfortunately, this is not crying wolf. It is mind boggling that with the cost of energy being one of the most critical issues in the country, somebody unnamed could reject a cabinet paper and not inform the PM, the minister responsible, or cabinet, for months on end. They didnt speak up when they heard the issue brought up in the house and allowed both ministers to give incorrect information to the bahamian public. Who is in charge of the country? Who is the PM reporting to? When we find out, all of our electric charge increases should be placed on their bill
tribanon 2 years ago
LIAR, LIAR....PANTS ON FIRE!!!!!!
birdiestrachan 2 years ago
Of course there is the mimium wage and many have the keys to homes VAT -1o% progress in deed
ThisIsOurs 2 years ago
what are you talking about?
birdiestrachan 2 years ago
FNM CRY TO LATE THEY SHOULD HAVE CRIED WHEN THEY INCREASED VAT 60% and put poor black people in jail for going to the pump as for making the rich richer , the post office deal one of the first things the FNM did Arawak key who benefits most,?
tribanon 2 years ago
LIAR, LIAR....SKIRT IS ON FIRE!!!!!! LMAO
stillwaters 2 years ago
Good one!!
ThisIsOurs 2 years ago
"Be careful’ urge police after new road deaths"
Ridiculous, what are they doing to stop people, running red lights, scooting out in front of right way traffic under turn left on red, making a 3rd lane on a double lane highway, going around a car to turn left on red, using the turning lane to jump a line, using blue hill road into bay as a merge lane instead of properly joining the queue. Theyre literally doing nothing.
sheeprunner12 2 years ago
Brave thinks he is like "Teflon" Donald Trump.
But his lying ways will soon run out. He will have to give an account.
BAMSI, Bahamasair, BPL, WSC, Power secure, FTX etc. All under his purview and all crippled because of his ineptitude.
FTX may be the last straw for Brave.
Sickened 1 year, 12 months ago
Brave's old clients aren't going to be happy when their man loses power.
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