PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis was keen to point the finger of blame yesterday.
During his mid-year Budget speech in the House of Assembly, Mr Davis ticked off a catalogue of complaints.
He railed against the former government’s handling of the food assistance programme, despite the fact that an investigation is already under way by the Auditor General and a report hasn’t been delivered yet.
He complained that the Parks and Beaches Authority had been used as a “slush fund” and that evidence of wrongdoing there was “overwhelming” while not providing that evidence.
He also lashed out at the Bahamas Travel Health Visa, citing the Auditor General’s report on the scheme and saying it was “truly shocking”, despite the Auditor General actually praising the “vision and implementation” of the Health Travel Visa. There were concerns raised by the Auditor General, such as the lack of competitive bidding, a measure that has been repeated by this administration in the selection of a company to provide insurance services.
Mr Davis also claimed that one of the non-governmental organisations involved in the food programme had “close to $2m sitting in their bank accounts. Why?”
Well, if he’d asked that question of the NGO rather than in Parliament, he might have found the answer. Opposition Leader Michael Pintard already castigated Mr Davis for suggesting the NGO may have been doing something untoward, and in fact the sum has already been repaid when the government asked.
There are two things you might notice about this speech – first, it was quite scattershot, taking aim at all manner of targets; and second, it was all claim, no evidence.
If someone is doing something wrong, lay out the evidence. If someone has broken the law, follow the processes to penalise them. Don’t just stand there using Parliamentary privilege to make accusations and not back them up. It brings back bad memories of Jerome Fitzgerald reading out emails for a non-governmental organisation he says he found in his political trash can.
What will be crucial will be to see whether Mr Davis actually acts on these accusations. If he does and a court finds wrongdoing to have taken place, then well done, that’s exactly what we want to see. If he doesn’t, then is this just all talk?
The clue to that might be when he says that he has been approached by some who have pre-emptively sought forgiveness and offered to implicate others higher up in the hierarchy, but he has not entertained discussions as it would be inappropriate.
Why not? Invite those people to commit it all to record and provide the information to the Auditor General and the police if necessary. To have someone come up to you and say I know something was done wrong and I can tell you who was responsible only to turn a deaf ear seems implausible to say the least.
Mr Davis says that steps “have and will be taken to ensure that those responsible will be held accountable”, but who has determined who is accountable if he isn’t listening to people? What process is being used to apportion blame? The Auditor General, who praised the implementation of the health visa that Mr Davis is lambasting?
“The chips will fall where they may,” concludes Mr Davis, rather than identifying those he holds to blame for inappropriate actions and tabling the evidence for all to see.
So if Mr Davis comes back and shows the evidence, we shall take him seriously, and if there is wrongdoing proven, we shall praise him for snuffing it out. But if this is all talk? Well, we’ve all had enough of that.
Comments
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago
"Davis also claimed that one of the non-governmental organisations involved in the food programme had “close to $2m sitting in their bank accounts. Why?”
Well, if he’d asked that question of the NGO rather than in Parliament, he might have found the answer"
There seems to be a huge bias against Mr Davis here.
There is literally no GOOD reason why any NGO should have two million sitting on their bank account from the food program.
We saw this exact same scenario with kanoo a few weeks ago with everyone saying well...nobody stole money. Their are serious fiduciary concerns when an entity holds large amounts of money for a 3rd party. One of those concerns is that you don't move the money around to fund your personal interests while noone is looking then put the money back with none the wiser.
Say for example that October salaries are short , well just take 200,000 out the account and pay it back on November 15th when we get a deposit from a donor. That is frowned upon everywhere in the financial world and in many places is illegal.
This money from the food program was given out to cover EXACT expenses. There was an estimate on number of persons to be serviced and a maintenance fee for carrying out the work. NOBODY should have been able to profit 2 million off the exercise. After the 3rd monthly report "according to the rules" of the program, someone should have pointed out, you said you'd service 1000 people per month but for the past quarter you're averaging 700. We're going to cut the stipend. Either return the balance as we agreed in the contract or we'll reduce next month's allotment by the difference
Davis is right on this one. Fraud in disaster management is a well known risk. Remember hurricane Andrew when all the fake contractors flooded Florida? Certainly when disaster hit the most immediate concern was feeding people, but in September 2021 nobody should have had 2 million dollars profit without an eyebrow raised
DWW 2 years, 1 month ago
Looks like you have some bias too maybe? Did you or anyone ask the NGO for a statement or are we all just speculators now?
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago
I don't have any bias here. I love the work the NGO's do, at the same time, I don't trust anybody with money, not even my own self. Somebody need to say what kind of error this was that misplaced 2 million dollars. What was this "account" that the money was a moved to used for? Everybody seems to be getting away with holding onto millions in govt money
You also missed the point of accountability. THE Food program and the NGO'S only response should have been "*here's our record of what we did month by month*"
geostorm 2 years, 1 month ago
Totally agree with this editorial. Davis must think people are stupid, lay out the evidence if something was done illegally and let the law take it's course. People are tired of these games!
moncurcool 2 years, 1 month ago
It is easy to make innuendos against things without providing evidence. The base Davis is catering too will get all railed up without any evidence and trumpet it as truth. Educated people, who Davis does not cater too can see through this ruse right away.
But that is what you get when you put people like Davis with no leadership qualifications in positions of authority. You get same old stuff. Nothing new here.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago
Do you realize that this is how corruption happens? Bahamians need to stop saying its "ok" because theyre the "good guys" and start demanding accountability from everybody. Assume the charity misplaced 2 million dollars. How did the task force not realize 2 million was missing? Did they both have the same error? And if 2 million went missing, how they feed people? And if they could misplace 2, they HAD to be aware that theyd OVERESTIMATED the money required to feed their area and should have immediately reported they needed less. They didn't
moncurcool 2 years, 1 month ago
If it is so much corruption, why come to the House with innuendos. Take the case to the Supreme Court and charge the NGO. But the evidence in the public domain.
But no, doing an u=innuendo and then never dealing with the matter after is all about political show to cater to people who cannot think for themselves.
DWW 2 years, 1 month ago
If the money is in a bank account and verified, how it is "Missing"? You just look like you are trying to create political mischief for mischief sake.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago
Political mischief? Come again please, I don't support any of them. My point today yesterday and always is don't tell me to trust you because you good. And don't tell me it was just a mistake. Similarly don't tell me you need 31m to finish the stadium and trust you its going to do wonders for the economy. Show me information.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 1 month ago
It's "missing" because it was sitting in as an account and nobody asked where this money come from?, nobody notice. I'd be very surprised if HFH is accustomed to having 2m sitting around doing nothing in any account. Management nor the board of directors ever looked at the financial statements???
pro_test 2 years, 1 month ago
LOL, you must be kidding. PM Davis has shown more leadership qualities than our last PM (Mr. Dictator). I think you should call yourself Bias and not Educated.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID