By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
HOUSE Speaker Dr Kendal Major has granted the Public Accounts Committee’s request for a public hearing on matters related to the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute as concerns continue over the operations of the multi-million project.
Dr Major yesterday said a letter was forwarded to Prime Minister Perry Christie, who is the finance minister, for approval. Financial matters relating to Parliament are subject to the Ministry of Finance’s scrutiny, he said.
The PAC, chaired by opposition MP Hubert Chipman, last month petitioned the speaker for a live televised hearing on the heels of accusations by the Free National Movement that protocol might have been broken to issue BAMSI contracts.
At the time, Mr Christie not only told reporters that he was certain all of the contractors working at BAMSI had all-risk insurance, but he urged the PAC to widen the perimeters of its probe into the spending of the Ministry of Works to include contracts signed during the previous Ingraham administration.
Dr Major said: “The chair had received an official letter from the chairman of the official Public Accounts Committee requesting its assistance in facilitating a public hearing for some of its inquiries regarding the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute in Andros.
“The chair responded privately to the request of the Public Accounts Committee seeking the assistance of the chair and granted approval in principle. The chair will certainly do its part to facilitate their wishes.
“Subsequently a letter was forwarded to the office of the member for Centreville as prime minister and minister of finance whose office under our present administrative structure is responsible for managing financial matters related to Parliament for your information.”
In the House of Assembly last month, Mr Christie suggested that the contents of files from the Ministry of Works could uncover wrongdoing under the previous FNM government, implying some policies were not adhered to during the tenure of former Works Minister Neko Grant.
However, at the time Mr Grant shot back at these accusations. He insisted that he has never presented misinformation to Parliament.
Minister of Works Philip Davis has been the subject of harsh criticism and had calls for his resignation after he revealed, that contrary to what he had told the House of Assembly on February 25, the $2.6m BAMSI male dormitory was never covered by a contractor’s all risk insurance. Mr Davis has said the dormitory will cost $5.5m to rebuild.
He had initially said the dormitory was without insurance at the time of the January 15 fire because the contractor, Audley Hanna of Paradigm Construction, allowed the policy to lapse.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID