PLP chairman rounds on Minnis over landfill spending

As of Thursday, March 9, 2017

PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts.

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party Chairman Bradley Roberts yesterday called on Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis to investigate the “apparent waste” of $33.5m earmarked for a solid waste management programme in New Providence.

“The FNM borrowed $23.5m from the Inter-American Bank and used $10m from the Public Treasury to finance this project that to date has produced very little fruit if any,” Mr Roberts said in a statement issued yesterday.

“This is a good starting point for Dr Minnis.”

This loan was approved in February 1999, during a previous Ingraham administration, and the loan contract was signed in October of that year.

Dr Minnis was elected to Parliament in 2007 and served as a Cabinet minister during the last Ingraham administration.

The loan was intended to support existing government programmes in a bid to improve solid waste management in New Providence and on several Family Islands.

Primary components were said to include: institutional strengthening and regulatory adjustments; priority investments for disposal facilities; public awareness campaigns and recycling programmes.

The project is listed as completed on the IDB’s website; however, project details indicate a cancelled amount of USD$ 1,689,746, and repayments totalling USD$17,308,414. Some $4.5m is listed as outstanding.

The programme was preceded by two loans for technical cooperation, but project details for the loans were not available online.

The first loan contract, valued USD$750,000, was intended for the preparation of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for a solid waste management project, and was signed in February 1995. The project is listed as completed on the IDB website, which also notes a cancelled amount of USD$16,774.

The second loan contract was signed in May 1997 and is also listed as completed with a total value of USD$100,000.

Mr Roberts was firing back at criticisms levelled at the government by Dr Minnis over recurring fires at the New Providence Landfill.

He went on to criticise the FNM leader, who had responsibility for the site in the previous term, over his alleged “shameful record.”

To elucidate his point, Mr Roberts recalled statements made by Dr Minnis about a 2008 fire at the New Providence landfill during his tenure as minister of health and social development.

Mr Roberts maintained the Christie administration’s commitment to working with all stakeholders to achieve a resolution following the withdrawal of Renew Bahamas.

“Let us take for example the New Providence Landfill fire that burned for two days between 25th and 26th March 2008 while Dr Minnis served as minister of health and social development,” Mr Roberts said.

“[Dr] Minnis pontificated about how ‘recycling and mulching techniques could play critical roles in eliminating the amount of garbage that is being deposited at the Sanitary Landfill…’ but alas he never saw his way to implementing a plan to achieve this; he simply talked a good plan.”

Mr Roberts continued: “Dr Minnis even promised to produce a comprehensive report to address this vexing problem at the landfill. He said his comprehensive report indicated that at least 40 per cent of the garbage within the Bahamas can be recycled and another 15-20 per cent of that garbage can be mulched…but alas he never saw his way to establishing this programme to address this problem when he sat around the Cabinet table with the authority to make executive decisions to positively impact the lives of many families in the southwest corridor of New Providence.”

In a statement yesterday, Mr Roberts also renewed his accusations of conflict of interest over Dr Minnis’ company having a contract with the Public Hospitals Authority while the FNM leader was the minister of health.

Dr Minnis’ company, Leechez Investments Ltd, was awarded a two-year contract with the PHA to rent its Stat Care building in 2005, before he entered politics. However, the arrangement was continued on a month-to-month basis while he served as minister of health from 2007-2012, and is reportedly continuing.

Dr Minnis has said he told the PHA to move its building after advice from former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, however the agency never did. Dr Minnis did not declare the contract when he registered as a candidate in the 2007 general election, but has maintained that he declared his interests in the company after he was elected to office.

Mr Roberts said: “Minnis’ record of failure is clear: he never formulated a plan for National Health Insurance and he never formulated a plan to address the environmental and health issues connected with the New Providence Landfill.

“Dr Minnis does not represent the change the Bahamian people need,” he said.

“From all data available to us, he is a failed leader and a failed Cabinet minister who talks a good game, but fails to deliver. He is not new or fresh – he has been at the Cabinet table and has been confronted with governance challenges and has failed over and over again.”

alfalfa 7 years, 1 month ago

All this finger pointing is exactly what went on for the past thirty years and why the situation at the landfill has escalated to where it is. Blaming one another has not fixed the problem. It is now time to stop this petty bickering while people suffer, and come up with a viable solution, and THEN IMPLEMENT IT. By stating that Dr. Minnis does not represent the change the Bahamian people need, Big Bad Brad has acknowledged that the Bahamian people need a change. For once I agree with him. Let's see how he extracts his foot out of his mouth this time.

Jarafel 7 years ago

Thank you all I see is a bunch of finger pointing. No one talking about the site design

John 7 years, 1 month ago

Will there be international interference in the Bahamas General Elections? At least one country is seriously interested in the outcome of the Bahamas Elections and may already have foot soldiers on the ground working. During the controversy about whether or not Russia interfered in the US elections, it was revealed that the US, too, has interfered in elections of other countries. As many as 81 since WWII. and they have been involved in coups that have toppled Governments. . "The U.S. has a long history of attempting to influence presidential elections in other countries – it’s done so as many as 81 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a database amassed by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University.

That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile. Nor does it include general assistance with the electoral process, such as election monitoring.

Levin defines intervention as “a costly act which is designed to determine the election results [in favor of] one of the two sides.” These acts, carried out in secret two-thirds of the time, include funding the election campaigns of specific parties, disseminating misinformation or propaganda, training locals of only one side in various campaigning or get-out-the-vote techniques, helping one side design their campaign materials, making public pronouncements or threats in favor of or against a candidate, and providing or withdrawing foreign aid.

In 59% of these cases, the side that received assistance came to power, although Levin estimates the average effect of “partisan electoral interventions” to be only about a 3% increase in vote share.

The U.S. hasn’t been the only one trying to interfere in other countries’ elections, according to Levin’s data. Russia attempted to sway 36 foreign elections from the end of World War II to the turn of the century – meaning that, in total, at least one of the two great powers of the 20th century intervened in about 1 of every 9 competitive, national-level executive elections in that time period." Los Angeles Times.

sealice 7 years, 1 month ago

this is a bunch of childish bullshit - we don't need any of these people trying to run our country we should try foreign labour for leadership??

John 7 years, 1 month ago

you to work early

John 7 years, 1 month ago

Expect a lot of personal information and misinformation (lies) to be put out in the public., and money in abundance, especially if polls show the party 'favored' is behind in the numbers. Then when it is all over many Bahamians will spend the next 5 years sucking their teeth.

Alex_Charles 7 years, 1 month ago

Exactly why this piece of crap country won't improve. Bahamians will race to the polls to support this childish buffoonery. Everyone wants to point fingers yet no-one wants to get off their ass and address anything. Better ran the Bahamas though... right?

John 7 years, 1 month ago

That's exactly what they want. they want the voters to focus on persons and personalities rather than concerns and issues. This is a tactic Donald trump used very effectively. Once he 'injured' his opponents with personal attacks and slander, they became too damaged and weak in the public's eye. The US elections was based on bullying. A new type reality show almost. Americans loved it and so before they knew it it gave them a new president, like him or love him.

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