“Dead in the water – Govt. kills opposition bid for immigration committee” – The Nassau Guardian 21 February 2023; excerpt from this article; “Parliamentarians last night overwhelmingly voted against the formation of a select committee on immigration, as requested by the opposition.

The vote was 22 nays, five yays, and 10 MPs were absent, including Prime Minister Philip Davis and former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis.

Shortly after the vote, Davis informed the opposition that now is not the time for reports on immigration but action”.

After hearing these words I was assured that Davis and the New Day government was about to rectify a situation that they helped to create shortly after Dorian, so imagine my surprise to find out that the “action” had not yet begun.

“Legal wrangling over shanty town demolitions – Govt. wants order to tear down structures” – The Nassau Guardian 4 April 2023

Excerpt from this article; “The government’s request for a court order to demolish more than 300 buildings in shantytowns across Abaco and New Providence is an attempt to sidestep the law, Fred Smith, KC, argued yesterday, saying that the decision to demolish buildings lies in the hands of the minister responsible for building regulation and not the court.

The government filed a summons and issued notices in both English and Haitian Creole to some residents in shantytowns on Abaco and New Providence who, it argues, breached a Supreme Court injunction by building new structures on the land.

Kayla Green-Smith, who appeared on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General, asked the court to grant an order to demolish the structures and an order for costs.

Both sides appeared via Zoom before Chief Justice Ian Winder yesterday morning.

Green-Smith noted that the government is seeking the demolition of 232 buildings off S.C. Bootle Highway on Abaco; 120 in the shantytown called The Farm located near Treasure Cay; 19 buildings in a shantytown on All Saints Way on New Providence; 14 buildings on Montgomery Road, off Cowpen Road; and five on Butlers Way, off Carmichael Road and Gladstone Road.

Several shantytown residents who were served with notices appeared in court.

Smith, who appeared on behalf of 177 shantytown residents, said the court has no jurisdiction to order demolitions, as the power is vested in the minister.

He argued that what the government is attempting to do is “convert what was a shield of protection into a sword”.

He said there is no jurisdiction in the court to permit that.”, but didn’t Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-­Thompson just overturn her very own ruling on the demolition of shanty town properties and evictions of residents saying that they can resume and are indeed lawful?

So it would appear that the New day government has not begun the works that has already begun under the former Free National Movement (FNM) administration, even after claiming that they had all legal rights to resume the works, and now may be facing the same type of “roadblock” to the demolition of these illegal shanty towns and illegal structures that they once backed when Davis once called for a “halt to Abaco demolitions”; what a turn of events. 

But the argument that that Fred Smith KC presents here is this; “……..the decision to demolish buildings lies in the hands of the minister responsible for building regulation and not the court”, so if this is the case then what exactly is the issue? 

Doesn’t the ministry responsible now have the responsibility to go in and make assessments and say which structures must be demolished? 

Is the Minister with the responsibility willing to take on this responsibility or is he being asked to stand down and let the issue run its course?

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

END

This past week the New Day Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government, led by the “Hon.” Philip ‘Brave Davis, basically told the Bahamas Petroleum Retailers Association to stop bit**ing and to make do with the fifty-four cents (54 cents) per gallon that the government was allowing them to make at the time.

The New Day government went even further putting its foot on the necks of these very same people by suggesting that if they, the New Day government, were to give the petroleum retailers what they were asking for then the New Day government would have to be rise the price of gasoline and in a sign of mercy they, the New day government went on to say that they would not burden the people of The Bahamas with such an increase, who are already struggling with the high cost of living.

This stance would and should look favorable for a government that is looking out for the welfare of its citizens; but is laughable if the Bahamas Petroleum Retailers Association were actually asking for the government to increase the cost of petroleum in the country and in light of all of the other taxes that the New Day government has already burdened the people of The Bahamas with.

“DESPERATE TIMES: Petroleum retailers say lay-offs inevitable due to fuel profit margins”  -Eyewitness News

Excerpt from this article;

“NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Petroleum dealers could be forced to lay off staff early in the new year if the government does not make an adjustment to their margins on gasoline and diesel, according to Bahamas Petroleum Dealers Association vice presidency Vasco Bastian.

In an Eyewitness News interview, Bastian noted that petroleum retailers have all year been pushing for an adjustment to their margins and have had formal and informal discussions with the government. 

“The government has made some adjustments with us on a small scale in the background to address some of our needs but the main issue has always been and continues to be the margin on gas and the margin on diesel,” said Bastian. 

Retailers currently earn a fixed $0.54 per gallon margin on gasoline, and $0.34 for diesel — margins that do not change when fuel prices go up.

“The government decided to raise the minimum wage. How do you absorb that in the petroleum industry where the margin is fixed? From that $0.54 cents on gas we pay our light bill, water bill, and salaries, we buy goods for the store, and order fuel – all from that $0.54 cents. You come and tell us that you are going to go up on certain aspects of our model but you have not dealt with the margin increase,” said Bastian.”

Retailers currently earn a fixed $0.54 per gallon margin on gasoline, and $0.34 for diesel — margins that do not change when fuel prices go up.

“The government decided to raise the minimum wage. How do you absorb that in the petroleum industry where the margin is fixed? From that $0.54 cents on gas we pay our light bill, water bill, and salaries, we buy goods for the store, and order fuel – all from that $0.54 cents. You come and tell us that you are going to go up on certain aspects of our model but you have not dealt with the margin increase,” said Bastian.”

So it would appear that the  Bahamas Petroleum Retailer Association is not asking the government to increase the cost of petroleum but rather adjust the margin to make it more equitable, so that they can actually survive in the current economy, so why would the Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr. Michael Halkitis make it seem otherwise?

“Minister of Economic Affairs Michael Halkitis said yesterday that the government is not prepared to entrain any increase in margins for petroleum retailers if it means the price of gas at the pump will increase and appealed to the Bahamas Petroleum Association to talk with the government”; first this is not what it seems that the retailers are asking for and secondly the retailer have indicated that they have been talking with the government – with is the disconnect?

Why does the Davis administration seem unwilling to adjust the margin to accommodate the retailers so that they can actually remain open?

The language used by Economic Affairs Minister; Michael Halkitis is very troubling when he says; “….the government is not minded to do anything that will increase the cost of fuel at the pump.”, as I have asked, is that is the action being suggested by the retailers suggesting this?

There seems to be an attempt to pit the petroleum retailers against the people by the government .  This within itself would be a vile and cowardly act on the government’s part.

Why this the New Day and “caring” government being so uncaring and deceitful on this matter?

The PLP fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END

Shanty town demolition will begin ‘this year’ – Bell” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “LABOUR and Immigration Minister Keith Bell said he thinks the government will move to demolish shanty towns sometime this year.

The minister was asked during a recent interview about a timeline for when the government will move to raze the illegal structures now that a Supreme Court injunction barring such action has been lifted.

This comes as tensions over the issue continue to mount, with political hopeful Lincoln Bain and several of his supporters being stopped by police a little over a week ago as they tried to demolish homes in a shanty town off Bacardi Road.

Asked about the issue, Mr. Bell responded: “The main thing here is that this is a country, and I’ve repeated this before, this is a country of law and order. Everything has to be done in decency and respect and in those shanty towns, we have three categories of persons.

“While we have the undocumented migrants we also have persons who have legal status here in the country and we have Bahamians living in those shanty towns. So the idea is that when we do go and move to demolish, we identify those Bahamians, and we ensure that they have some place to go, or we provide Social Services to them.

“And that is what I think we are seeking to achieve, that when we do go we have all our ducks lined up and there is no push back. And we ensure that once we go in there and we clear the shanty towns that we ensure that there is no rebuilding of the shanty towns. So that is what I think we want to make sure we get it right — we only have one bite at the apple. “

It would appear that New Day government is “kicking this can down the street”, as it pertains to this matter because when the courts put the injunction in place to prevent the pervious Free National Movement (FNM) from demolishing these homes, they objected basically on the same grounds that they seem to be pushing back today; “The main thing here is that this is a country, and I’ve repeated this before, this is a country of law and order. Everything has to be done in decency and respect and in those shanty towns, we have three categories of persons.”  One thing to date that this New day government has not proven is that the previous administration was not about to carry out the process in a decent and humane manner and also but they have proven that they have wasted a lot of time attempting to prove that the manner in which the previous administration was going to carry out the process was unlawful; they owe the country an apology for setting this movement back by years by not standing with Bahamians as they attempted then, to begin to mitigate the proliferation of these unsafe and illegal communities.

So now, again the New Day government promises action; because according to the prime minister; “PRIME Minister Philip Davis said he will not at this time or ever support a House of Assembly select committee on immigration, calling it unnecessary and questioning the motivation for the committee itself” – The Tribune, basically saying that the time for talk is over and now it is time for action – well Mr. Prime Minister, we await the action but this hollow sound of that empty tin can being kicked along the halls of parliament is extremely deafening.

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

END

The very same Supreme Court Justice that put an injunction in place to prohibit the demolition of shanty towns and illegal structures now has removed it.

“Green light given to clear shanties– Judge says policies to demolish unregulated communities is lawful” – The Nassau Guardian; February 13^th 2023

Excerpt from this article;

“The decision of Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson that the Minnis administration’s shantytowns eradication policy and its actions in seeking to execute it were legal, clears the way for the Davis administration to carry through on its own stated plan to address the vexing and long-standing issue of irregular communities across The Bahamas.

In a ruling that had been highly anticipated, Grant-Thompson rejected the claims made by a group of shantytown residents that the government acted illegally in issuing notices for them to vacate land and violated their constitutional rights on multiple fronts, including their right not to be deprived of their property, their right not to be treated in an inhuman or degrading fashion, and their right to freedom from discrimination.

“The policy and the subsequent decisions were constitutional,” stated Grant-Thompson in the ruling handed down on Friday.

“Any interference with any right was justifiable and applied reasonably to obtain a legitimate aim/purpose. It was further submitted that such policies were not discriminatory in their effect. The applicants were not unlawfully deprived of their property.”

As such, the judge discharged the injunction she granted on August 3, 2018 which restrained the government from demolishing buildings in shantytowns on New Providence or elsewhere in The Bahamas.

The judge also cleared the way for the disconnection of utilities illegally connected, though she said the actions of the authorities ‘should be humane and sensitive to the needs of this potentially vulnerable community’ and in full compliance with human rights conventions.”

On Friday past in her ruling the Supreme Court Justice says; “The Court is satisfied that the Minister has the authority to remove or require the removal of dangerous or dilapidated buildings even to the point of demolishing them.  Such structures would obviously pose a risk to the health and safety of the public. As a result of this ruling, the injunction which was in place covering the ‘shantytowns’ is hereby lifted.”

The first and most obvious question that I have is when did the Supreme Court Justice come to the realization that these structures would “pose a risk to the health and safety of the public”? 

Now we must not jump to the conclusion that the decision was compromised by politics, but it is curious that only now the Supreme Court Justice finds “The policy and the subsequent decisions were constitutional,” what has changed since the Minnis administration initially put the policy in place?

There has been no referendum to change the constitution.

Are we playing politics with the lives of persons that we claim to be concerned about?

Are we playing politics with policies which, if implemented when they were first issued, would have move the country that much further along in “the plan to address the vexing and long-standing issue of irregular communities across The Bahamas”?

Now the New Day government claims a “victory” in having this injunction overturned, when they we sympathetic to having it put in place in the first place.

Just shameful or is that shameless?

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

One of the greatest transgressions that the Minnis administration committed against the Bahamian people upon coming to power was when they increased Value-Added Tax (VAT) from seven and a half percent (7.5%) to twelve percent (12%).  They did this after telling the people that taxation was a lazy man’s way to raise revenue and they were heavily criticized and ridiculed by the people of the country, even those that put their trust in them and voted for them and also by the opposition at the time; a Philip ‘Brave’ Davis led Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).  This is notably one of the “nails in the coffin” of the Minnis administration.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in opposition promised to do better; as they claimed that the Minnis led Free National Movement (FNM) government, was having no consideration on the less fortunate amongst us and was burdening them with the increased VAT rate.

“Govt. approves NIB rate hike” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “The Cabinet of The Bahamas has green-lighted a National Insurance Board (NIB) rate increase, which is expected to take effect July 1, The Nassau Guardian understands.

The government has made no announcement as yet, but a 1.5 percent increase has reportedly been agreed.

Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister Myles LaRoda, who has responsibility for NIB, did not confirm Cabinet’s specific decision on the matter, but did indicate to reporters yesterday that a decision was made.

“That matter has been dealt with at Cabinet,” said LaRoda when asked for an update.

“We are at a decision. We have a little bit of cleaning up to do with regard to the decision that was made and we will be coming forth shortly with the direction that the National Insurance Board will go with regards to the [rise in] contribution rates and other recommendations that were made in the report that the executive management team of the National Insurance Board has recommended to the government that in their view needs to change.”

There has only ever been one NIB rate increase since NIB started in 1974 – the rate increased from 8.8 percent to 9.8 percent in 2010.

LaRoda has repeatedly said an increase for NIB cannot be avoided.

Early last month, The Nassau Guardian reported that the board of NIB wrote the government recommending that it move ahead with an increase of between three quarters of a percentage point and 1.5 percentage point to begin to save the fund from depletion in 2028 as was projected in the latest actuarial review presented in January 2022.”

Prime Minister Philip Davis said last April and again last June that a rate increase was not in the cards, but the board had recommended that the government move quickly to effect the increase in time for January 1, 2023.”

ommended that the government move quickly to effect the increase in time for January 1, 2023.”

The former Minnis administration, at one point seemed to have at least made an attempt at mitigating their “transgression” of the higher VAT rate by removing VAT from breadbasket items and medications.  The New Day Davis led Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government has reduced VAT to 10 percent (10%), as promised and has also managed to increase the minimum wage from Two Hundred and Ten Dollars ($210) to two Hundred and Fifty Dollars ($250) per week, also as promised, but along with these ‘great” works they seemed to have also increased every other tax even putting ten percent (10%) VAT on the once VAT free breadbasket items and medication, basically negating the minimum wage increase, as that extra fifty dollars per week will now go toward increased taxes and a higher electricity rate, that came about due to the negligence of the New Day government.

Now the National Insurance (NI) rates have been increased and although it may be just one and half percent (1.5%), all knew that at the very moment that the prime minister made the statement that NI rates would not be increased, we knew to expect them to actually to be increased. 

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

END

“Sears: At no time did I deliberately mislead House” – The Nassau Guardian 2 Feb. 2023

“Opposition Leader Michael Pintard charged yesterday that Minister of Works Alfred Sears misled Parliament, not once, but eight times on the Davis administration’s failure to execute certain fuel hedge trades in the fall of 2021 to lock in fuel prices and keep Bahamas Power and Light’s (BPL) fuel charge stable.

Pintard raised the issue once again in the House of Assembly, prompting Sears to spring to his feet and declare he never intentionally misled the House.

Sears took exception to Pintard’s use of a certain word to describe the Davis administration’s actions with respect to what he (Pintard) termed a lack of transparency over the issue.

The speaker of the House ordered the particular word struck from the record of Parliament, but Pintard fired back, saying even if the particular word is not used, “In English, it is called a synonym. It just has the same meaning. You have misled the House on no less than eight occasions on your feet.”

Pintard told Parliament, “We have not forgotten, the prime minister has not yet relieved the member for Fort Charlotte (Sears) of his duties, nor has he decided that he will demit office, but, Madam Speaker, I remind the public that we are going to pay over $100 million because of ill-advised decisions by this administration …”

It appears that the “good” minister is either suggesting that he did mislead the House or as a seasoned attorney; a King’s Council no less, is trying to convince us that he may have unknowingly misled The House? 

All I can say is loose the donkey!

“FNM blasts govt. over BPL’s $150M arrears” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “The Free National Movement (FNM) yesterday renewed its call for Minister of Works Alfred Sears to resign over what it insisted has been the “bungling” of the affairs of Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) as evidenced by a revelation in the government’s newly released Fiscal Strategy Report 2022 that the utility has arrears of $150 million.

The report, which Prime Minister Philip Davis tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, states under the government liabilities section at the end of the document, “The recent disclosure of approximately $150 million of payment arrears of Bahamas Power and Light represents a significant unbudgeted liability of the government.

“To ensure continued provision of essential electrical services to the public, the government has committed to ensuring payment of this liability by the corporation.”

The opposition party has sought to link the BPL arrears to the Davis administration’s decision to reject recommendations made by BPL’s fuel hedge committee in the fall of 2021 for the government to execute fuel hedge trades to lock in oil prices and keep the BPL fuel charge stable.”

The FNM has contended over months that the failure to conduct those transactions, and the prime minister’s decision to reverse a BPL fuel charge increase announced by BPL last February, directly resulted in consumers having now to stomach a substantially higher fuel charge which is being rolled out over months.

The FNM has taken particular aim at Sears, who has told conflicting reports in Parliament over the BPL matter, initially stating that he had had no briefing nor received any advice on the hedging program.

Sears more recently acknowledged that he in fact was privy to such advice, and that it was the minister of finance who decided against executing the trades – a claim Davis, who is minister of finance, has denied.”

So, first Minister Sears says that he had no knowledge of the briefing nor had he received any advice on the hedging program, only to then “acknowledged that he in fact was privy to such advice”, and at this point it would appear that Prime Minister Davis left him in the deep end by himself, by going on to claim that he never saw the report even though it is suggested that it was the minister of finance that decided against executing the trades.

It would appear, as you look back on the entire mess, that the minister’s action, whether “unintentional” or through sheer incompetence and ineptitude will have a negative effect on the rest of us; but he sees no reason why he should face no consequences for his actions.

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

END

“Davis outlines agenda for 2023 – Economy, education, crime fight to receive priority attention, PM says” – The Nassau Guardian – January 20 2033

Excerpt from this article; “Though he provided no specifics, Prime Minister Philip Davis said yesterday that his administration will focus on education, growing the economy and tackling the scourge of violent crime in the country next year.

Davis who spoke at the 23nd annual Bahamas Business Outlook, said his government intends to deal with the high cost of living in the country.

We will continue to pursue growth in GDP and revenue, maximize the amount of investment in the country, and maintain efforts to reduce our debt,’ the prime minister said.

‘That said, we will put a particular focus on reducing the cost of living and making efforts to lift people out of poverty.

‘Even though the inflationary pressures are largely the results of global events and foreign economies, we will do whatever we can to ease the burden on Bahamian consumers.’

However the prime minister did not indicate what measures his administration intends to take to lift people out of poverty or ease the burden on consumers.”

Of course the prime minister cannot offer any specifics on how he “intends to lift people of the country out of poverty or ease the burden on consumers”; let me remind you that this is the very same prime minister whose government to date has lowered Value-Added Tax (VAT) to 10 percent but has added VAT to “breadbasket items and medications” which were once exempt but cannot show how this initiative has lifted persons out of poverty or even eased the burden of on consumers, while increasing taxes in other areas and considering even more tax increases.

This is also the same prime minister, who along with his Minister of Works and Utilities, through sheer incompetence and ineptitude allowed the “fuel-hedging” initiative left in place by the previous Free National Movement (FNM) government to expire with resulted in the increase to electricity rates.  Anyone knows one thing in doing business in this country or almost any place else; the cost of electricity drives your business cost and can actually stump economic growth.

Also, the prime minister is now saying that “the inflationary pressures are largely the results of global events”.  How can anyone take him seriously when he, while in opposition, CONTINUOULSY told then Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis that he could not use Dorian nor the pandemic for the state of the economy, but now he seeks to want us to excuse his government’s inability to do as promised because of “inflationary pressures”.  This reeks of pure and utter hypocrisy and duplicity.

And how does he only now seek to address the pressure of the economy after being in office for over a year?

What has his administration been doing for over a year?

“On the issue of crime, The Bahamas saw a 7.6 percent rise in murders in 2022 compared to 2021.

So far, there has been nine murders for 2023”.

Since coming to office the Davis administration has seen a steady climb in the violent crime rate and have had no solution, so now they promise to focus on “tackling the scourge of crime”; is this to say that for over a year that the New Day government has not had a plan for crime in the country?

Is this to say now that they may have a crime plan?

What has his administration been doing for over a year?

“On education, Davis noted that there is a need to address the learning loss caused by the pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Education revealed that it engaged a US-based company to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the learning loss suffered by students during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide recommendations for accelerated learning recovery.”

This statement is very troubling because it was my understanding that the Minister for Education and Technical Training and Vocation; the Hon.  Glenys Hanna-Martin’s “efforts” to get students back into schools and back to “face-to-face” learning, would have been firstly met with an assessment of any “learning loss” and would at that time, given the educational system a course of action to take, if any was needed, over a year ago – why is this only happening now?

What I have found interesting that given the current concerns of the country today, there is no mention of prioritizing illegal immigration, I guess this is not a priority to this government and does not contribute in any way to any of the three issues that they wished to prioritize.

What has his administration been doing for over a year?

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

END

“Opposition on SDRs: Does the govt. have liquidity issues?” – The Nassau Guardian

 Excerpt from this article; “Pintard: What has arisen that they need to draw down on advance?

• Thompson: It does raise a red flag in terms of our fiscal position”

Opposition Leader Michael Pintard yesterday questioned if the government’s “rush” to utilize financing provided through the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) special drawing rights is a signal of a liquidity crisis for the Ministry of Finance.

The opposition held a virtual press conference yesterday to further hammer the Davis administration with claims of breaking the law in accessing $233 million through the IMF’s SDRs.

“What has arisen so suddenly that they needed to draw down on this advance and they could not come to Parliament in December or November or October, to mention they are going to engage in such a sizable advance? They ought to have then tidied up the legislation, if that’s the red herring argument they want to use,” Pintard said.

“It did raise a concern as to whether they were experiencing any liquidity issues. According to the government they are ahead of revenue collections. They have given the impression really that things are going exceptionally well for them. We have said in earlier press engagements that we don’t buy it. We simply don’t buy the story, because they have sprung on the Bahamian public a series of taxes and fees that again was not a part of their budget discussions or subsequent discussions on the management of various ministries. So the increase of fees in the manner they did it with respect to the Ministry of Transport was again worrisome for us.

The opposition has taken the position that the government did not lay out its plan to use the IMF SDR funding in its annual borrowing plan, which was released last year.”

So now the question arises, does the New Day government [the Davis led Progressive Liberal Party] have The Bahamas in deep financial trouble again and is not letting the country know the truth as they did during the previous Christie led PLP administrations?

Why this ‘”Hushed and rushed” method of borrowing and is it indeed legal?

I remember when the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) introduced Value-Added Tax (VAT).  We had Michael Halkitus bragging about how the tax initiative was performing beyond expectations; he bragged about this even as the country continued to go through economic downgrades.

Now we have the PLP under “new” leadership, claiming that “It’s a New Day”, telling us that the country’s finances are rebounding exceptionally well but yet having to ‘tap into emergency funding’ and the question is where is the money going?

So while the ‘top floor’ is telling the country that all is going well; some of us are more concerned about what is going on at the ‘seventeenth floor’; the floor that only a select few have been able to access; much like Bernie Maddox’s 17^th Floor.

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

END

At this time the country is fixated on the meltdown of the FTX group of companies and there is a ‘fire storm’ with persons from each major political organization asking, who brought Sam Bankman-Fried, former FTX CEO to The Bahamas in the first place. But there are still many unanswered questions concerning how this will affect the future confidence in the county’s financial sector, especially its ‘virgin’ cyrpo-currency sector; one main question being, did the New Day government invest any of the taxpayers money in this venture?

While this issue plays out before us I would rather focus my attention on the incompetence and ineptitude which has caused my Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) utility bill to basically triple. 

I would rather focus my attention on the hypocrisy and duplicity behind this incompetence and ineptitude, which I find to be epic and the contradiction between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Works and Utilities, which has left me wondering who is not being honest with the public and why would they attempt to tell such blatant lies in this digital age?

“Cooper: Gov’t should borrow $1 bil. to $2 bil. To shore up economy” – The Nassau Guardian 31^st March 2020

Excerpt from this article; “Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Deputy Leader Chester Cooper said yesterday that the government should borrow 41 billion to $2 billion in order to bolster The Bahamas’ economy for the long-term, given the negative economic effects on the horizon for the country.

Cooper, who made the remarks in the House of Assembly, suggested the money be allocated to a myriad of programs designed to keep the economy afloat and argued this would be justifiable borrowing, given the local and global crises.

‘The government should, in my view, identify facilities in the area of $1 [billion] to $2 billion in this low interest environment, in order to shore up the economy,’ Cooper said.”

So here we have the Deputy Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), now Deputy Prime Minister of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, advising the Free National Movement (FNM) government to borrow one billion to two billion dollars to “shore up” the country’s economy while interest rates were low to avoid the burden on the tax payers of paying back a national debt at a higher interest rate. Of course this did not play out in the manner in which Mr. Cooper predicted in his “doom and gloom” speech that it would but what is more interesting is what he did when it came time for him to do basically the same thing – putting measures in place to save the Bahamian people and the county’s money.

“BPL CEO wrote Sears on hedging in Oct. 2021” – The Nassau Guardian – October 27, 2022

An October 18, 2021 letter written to Minister of Works Alfred Sears by the then-CEO of Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) Whitney Heastie provides comprehensive details of the company’s fuel hedge program, designed to lock in global oil prices at the lowest possible rates and stabilize the fuel charge to consumers.

Amid uproar in the House of Assembly throughout the day on whether Sears and other members of the Davis administration had been briefed on the need to continue the hedge trades, Opposition Leader Michael Pintard tabled the letter last night.

Despite objections from Sears, the House speaker allowed it.

The opposition contends that the failure of the Davis administration to execute hedging trades as advised by BPL’s hedging committee and board, left customers exposed and resulted in high fuel costs now being introduced incrementally by BPL.

Heastie started the six-page letter to Sears, the minister responsible for BPL, by stating, “Further to your email regarding the hedge program at BPL, I think it would be useful to provide a general overview of the strategic considerations that went into the structuring and implementation of this program, how the program works and the results, to date.”

Sears was advised in the letter that BPL through execution of the hedges was “seeing the huge benefits, given the price of oil on the open market…”

So at some point it was shown that the Minister of Public Works and Utilities knew about the hedging program and how it worked and did nothing about it but one would think that this would also cross the desks of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. As this is tantamount to their campaign goal of “saving the Bahamian people”, as the Deputy Prime Minister said that the former government was not doing when he advised them to borrow money at a lower rate.

Now to add insult to injury.

“Sears concedes BPL hedge trade requests were rejected” – The Nassau Guardian 18 November 2022

Excerpt from this article;

“Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Philip “Brave” Davis told Parliament last month that he never received any briefing or saw any papers on the need to execute fuel hedging trades for Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) to lock in oil prices last fall, but Minister of Works Alfred Sears said in the House of Assembly on Wednesday that a Cabinet paper to this effect was addressed to the minister of finance, and the Ministry of Finance decided to reject the recommendation after reviewing it.

Sears’ acknowledgement on Wednesday came after he and the prime minister both repeatedly insisted in the House of Assembly that they had not had any briefings on the need to carry out the hedge transactions and had seen no documents on it.

After Opposition Leader Michael Pintard raised the issue in the House of Assembly on October 26, Davis said, “The member accuses my administration of failing to do an act that has impacted the Bahamian people.  “We deny that. That is not true, so I ask this member, he’s talking about executing trades. I want him to explain to the Bahamian people … what trades he’s talking about and what does he mean by executing trades and how it was not done.”

The prime minister insisted, “No recommendation came to me, and the minister for works (who is responsible for BPL) said there was no such information coming to [him] to do what he (Pintard) said we should do, and he characterized it as executing trades. There was no such recommendation that I was aware of.”

But yesterday, Sears’ revelation confirmed that recommendations were addressed to the finance minister and the finance ministry made the decision not to accept.”

Under the Free National Movement (FNM), borrowing was done but not on the scale that Cooper was adamantly suggesting and the money actually was directed toward a “myriad of programs designed to keep the economy afloat’, which it did.  Then Cooper and his team began the hypocritical and duplicitous cry of “All that money borrowed and nothing to show for it; just imagine if someone had actually listened to Cooper with the ‘recommendation’ of borrowing the $2bn!

Here we have one pointing the finger at the other blaming them for this inexcusable lapse in governance, which has now led to the increase in higher power bills and the increments in public servants pay and the fifty dollar increase in the minimum wage rate has come just in time for the people to put a ‘lil somethin’ on their light bill.

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

END

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