I recall my first year in Queens College and getting caught by Mr. Andrews riding a bicycle in the Quadrangle, this was against the schools rules. As he was writing a demerit, I tried to explain to him that I was unaware that what I was doing was against the rules/laws of the school; he replied that it was my responsibility to learn and know the rules of the institution and that ignorance of them was no excuse.

“Some Mp’s ‘not aware’ they had to file disclosure – Some ‘just finding out about legal requirement” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Some first time MP’s were unaware that there was a legal requirement for them to file financial disclosures under the Public Disclosure Act, Commission Chairman Bishop Victor Cooper told The Nassau Guardian.

The deadline for parliamentarians to file their disclosure was March 1.

The act empowers the commission to extend the time for the filing of declarations ‘for a further period not exceeding 30 days.’

‘……There are persons who are new members of Parliament who aren’t aware and so as a result of some person just finding out and so they’ve been advised that they need to get the information in and they’ve been advised to do that ASAP,’ Cooper said.

It’s just a matter of helping those, giving a simple grace period for those who haven’t been through the process before.”

Giving persons a “grace period” when they claim that they are unaware of the law is simple incompetence and my first question is this; governments have argued about this for decades; so how does one now come and claim to “not be aware”?

Have you been living in a cave in Mayaguana?!

Let us establish a few facts; one, new candidates must undergo a candidates training program during which they are advised of the process and laws that they would have to follow as members of parliament and two, that the chairman of the commission that oversaw this process was Myles Laroda, PLP member of parliament for Pinewood, when the PLP was in opposition; with these two facts being established the question now is exactly what is the PLP, as an organization and government asking the people of The Bahamas to believe?

The entire situation just reeks of either incompetence or an air of abhorrent arrogance, maybe both, but either way it is totally unacceptable and very shameful if junior members the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) actually did not know and worst if they knew and are claiming not to know.

It would appear that the PLP members of parliament, well some of them, really believe that the people that elected them to office are willing to “eat” anything that they are “fed” and have already begun to take advantage of their ignorance by claiming ignorance and the sad part about it all is that there will be people fully willing to support and defend this level of ineptitude, incompetence and laziness.

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

END