“I have done what I thought was my purview and what I could have done under the circumstances.” the Hon. Jerome Fitzgerald as he attempts to justify his actions in the Rubis gasoline leak matter.

“No regrets over Rubis” – ‘Fitzgerald insists govt. acted properly over delayed report” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald said yesterday he has no regrets over the government’s handling of the matter involving the delayed released of a report into a Rubis fuel leak, which warned people of the potential health risks to Marathon residents and people who worked in the area.

Asked if he has any regrets about the way in which the situation was dealt with, or wished to apologize, Fitzgerald said ‘No.  Not from the governments stand point.’

He added, ‘From the government’s standpoint, I think it was handled properly.  I think from the evidence, everything the government did, it did in an expeditious manner.”

It is indeed sad that the member of parliament for the constituency of Marathon would feel that he has ‘no regrets’ over the handling of the Rubis matter; seeming to have no regrets about the well being of the constituents of the area, as he states “From the government’s standpoint I think it was handled properly”, but what about from the standpoint of the people who elected him to represent them and look out for their best interest?

It has always been my opinion that the Member of Parliament for Marathon bears the full responsibility for the manner in which this situation was handled or mishandled but now we begin to see the full extent of this situation as the minister attempts to clear his ‘good name’.

“Cabinet reviewed the report, agreed to release the report and sent it to the attorney general’s office’ the MP said.

‘The attorney general’s office sat on the report and from what I understand the attorney general has asked Justice [Joseph] Strachan to review to see where the breakdown was in the attorney general’s office as to why the report was not released.” It now seems that the full Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Cabinet along with the attorney general was complicate in the gross negligence toward people whom they claimed to have cared so fervently about.

Minister Fitzgerald comments of having ‘no regrets’ and that he believes that the government acted properly seem extremely cold and callous as he goes on to then admit that the report was delayed, we now know that it was delayed for over a year, so this begs the question does Minister Fitzgerald feel that it is proper to conceal this type of information from his constituents or any other Bahamian citizen, for that matter, in the interest of himself or any other reason.

“The question was asked why I wouldn’t take something out of Cabinet or why I did not take this and say something out of Cabinet.

“I said I would have been fired. I take my job as a Member of Parliament seriously.

‘I take my responsibility seriously as a Cabinet minister.”

As the minister says, he takes his job and responsibility seriously and it would seem that he takes it more seriously than the health and welfare of the people that live and work in the Marathon area.  The government would now have us believe that the report was merely delayed through ‘poor coordination and administration, this is believable because this has become the standard at which this government seems to ‘work, but the facts tells us that Minister Fitzgerald had read the report in 2014 and kept silent about it was not until it was leaked to the media that he was forced into admitting that the report existed; if his hand were not forced no one knows just how long him and his government would have remained silent on the matter.

This is akin to the Flint, Michigan water crisis but at least persons were held accountable in this situation but the minister wishes us to dismiss the role that he played in this incident as he was only doing his job.

SHAME!

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END