From the very moment that a Davis led Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) was voted in as the government of The Bahamas, we all knew; well most of us, to expect an interesting and bumpy RIDE!

Most of us were just watching as the ride unfolded; seeing the red flags and thinking gleefully that a carnival was coming, until the economy was downgrade and the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister attempted to convince us that this was actually a good thing; then and there we knew that there was no carnival.

Now we have a political organization and government caught in a lie and attempting to convince us that the Westminster system allows for them to carry out just act of gross maleficence.

I have found out that a person or group of persons that cannot admit to their wrongdoings- ever; are a very dangerous set of persons to associate with but how do you not associate with your own government?

“FNM names law it says the govt. broke over trip to Bermuda” – The Tribune.

Excerpt from this article;

“FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard accused the government of violating the Public Finance Management Act when it used public money to pay for Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’ controversial trip to Bermuda.

He said the opposition will put this issue before the Public Accounts Committee and use that group’s power to compel the turnover of all the relevant documents.

Last week, press secretary Clint Watson urged those who said the government had broken the law in reference to the trip’s financing to show which law had been contravened.

“It is embarrassing for us to have to educate the Office of the Prime Minister on the law – especially given that the Cabinet has more than one noted King’s Counsel with decades of experience in the practice of law,” Mr. Pintard said in a statement yesterday.

 “We firmly believe they were fully aware that their actions were inappropriate but were blinded by arrogance and were caught in plain sight. Nonetheless we shall assist the Office of the Prime Minister.

 “The government’s spokesman would do well to acquaint himself with Articles 130 and 131 of the Constitution which speaks to how public funds are authorized and which, in Article 131, expressly says that public funds ‘issued shall be disposed of for meeting public expenditure under Article 130 of the Constitution or, in the case of statutory expenditure, for the purposes appointed by law.

He also said: “We are pleased to advise him as well that under Section 30 (1) of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act that ‘no public officer nor public office holder shall commit the government to a financial liability or contingent liability unless specifically authorized to do so under this or any other Act.’

 “Finally, we make him aware that Section 111 (1) (a) of the PFM Act states that ‘a public officer, or other person with responsibility for public resources commits an offence of financial misconduct if, without lawful authority, that person willfully or recklessly (a) incurs expenditure or makes commitments for expenditure of public money.’ Clearly, advancing money for a trip by a political or any other non-government entity is not public expenditure as defined in the Constitution or any statute law of The Bahamas.”

Mr. Pintard said the trip’s financing was “unauthorized expenditure”.

The Leader of The Royal Opposition, the Hon. Michael Pintard, released the above statement when questioned as to which law that was broken by the Davis government when it used public funds to finance PLP party trip to Bermuda to support their “sister party”; The Progressive Labor Party (PLP); the reason that they actually bragged about but now seem to want to ‘walk back’.

So now the government and its very loyal minions are attempting to deflect from this wrong doing by obfuscating a section of the U K Ministerial Code, that we as a country still follow but that’s presents an argument for another day.

Excerpt from “Guidance: MINISTRIAL CODE – updated 22 May 2022”

“Party Political occasions

10.15 Where a visit is a mix of political and official engagements, it is important that the department and the Party each meet a proper proportion of the actual cost.”

The only problem is that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) cannot seem to be able to prove that this trip was “a mix of political and official engagement”, as they cannot outline the “official engagment” that they were attending to on behalf of the Bahamian people, it would now seem that they are attempting to twist this section of the Ministerial Code to explain away this latest wrongdoing that they are unwilling to admit to – its amazing that they have not found a way to blame the Minnis administration for this latest mistake, like they would usually do.

The whole act has turned out to be a very ‘smudgy’ incident because now the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), while admitting to no wrongdoing has paid back a portion of the funds in the amount of Twenty Four Thousand, Seven Hundred and Fifty dollars ($24,750) while the Prime Minister and leader of the PLP is saying that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) paid for the trip and the Chairman of the PLP, Fred Mitchell is telling the country that the trip was organized through OPM as is standard.

To date no one knows the actual cost of the trip, as the OPM, the Prime Minister, and the Chairman of the PLP nor has any other officer in that party been forthcoming with that information.

This entire situation leaves many asking, how many other trips that were not “official engagements” have been financed this way and just not found out

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

END