The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Writer

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Kwasi Thompson, Member of Parliament for East Grand Bahama, released a statement yesterday urging the government to provide an update on the Fiscal Responsibility Council and to produce the overdue Fiscal Strategy Reports.

He said: “We demand that the government provide a fulsome update on the status of the council - including its current leadership and composition. Also, the government must advise of what steps it is taking to ensure that the FRC promptly publishes all of its tardy reports and begin to meet the reporting timelines stipulated in the law.”

In January, Kevin Burrows, the former council chairman, confirmed to this paper that he is no longer involved with the council and that it is understood the representative for the financial analysts may have changed.

Mr Thompson said that he was “astonished” by the government’s failure to ensure that the council is active and demanded to know if the council is currently functional and receiving a stipend.

He said: “The Opposition is astonished that the Davis administration is once again failing in it’s responsibility to the public in failing to ensure that the statutorily mandated Fiscal Responsibility Council (FRC) is properly constituted and doing its work.”

“From what we have read in the press, the chairperson of the FRC stepped down several months ago. The government has failed to announce the appointment of his replacement. We do not know if the council is still functional and receiving its monthly stipend from the Treasury.”

“What we do know is that there are three legally required oversight reports that the council has failed to produce - one of which is more than a year late.”

The council is a key fiscal watchdog, charged with reviewing the annual Fiscal Strategy Report; annual Budget; mid-year Budget review; pre-election economic and fiscal update; the government’s annual accounts and any deviation from the established fiscal targets.

Mr Thompson accused Prime Minister Philip Davis of staying silent on the council’s “gross dysfunction” and playing “lip-service” to the concept of transparency.

He said: “Despite the fact that the seeming gross dysfunction of the FRC has been raised several times now, the Prime Minister - who as Finance Minister has executive oversight of the council - continues to say mum on the matter. As with many other matters, the Davis administration is perfectly content to flaunt the law and do little more than play lip service to any notion of true accountability and transparency.”

The Davis administration’s Public Finance Management Bill 2023 repealed both the Fiscal Responsibility Act and Public Financial Management Act and consolidating them into one large new law.