The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

THE Bahamas has always been a country with a good record of support and standing with the Commonwealth Secretariat. Our first Prime Minister, Sir Lynden Pindling, was a staunch supporter of using the Secretariat to help developing nations to have access and voice in larger global affairs and decision making.

However, the current reports of abuse of the public’s trust and Commonwealth Secretariat have come to the attention of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA). While this may seem like an external matter to some extent and should be handled by our British counterparts and other larger Commonwealth countries who have a greater percentage of the donor spending, we find it a part of our business because not only are we an active member of the Commonwealth realm, but the Bahamas supports the Commonwealth Secretariat through various ways and means as do all of the other Commonwealth countries.

Over 53 countries comprise the Secretariat; some of them are large donors and others are recipients or assist in kind. However, the issue is not just donor-recipient related outright, but it is with regard to how the Secretariat’s funds are spent and resources managed along with the lack of transparency and accountability in office of the current Commonwealth Secretariat Secretary General, Baroness Scotland of Asthal.

The Baroness is embroiled in a gigantic financial and corruption scandal that has rocked her administration. Calls for her resignation have been made outright, and considering that her appointment to the post last year was controversial to begin with, the least of which is her offering bogus knighthoods along with reports of cash for votes, it seems like her stepping aside would be the best case scenario for all parties involved.

The most recent of these scandals is with regard to her now known personal connection to and friendship with Lord Patel of Bradford, a supposedly “independent contractor” to the Commonwealth Secretariat, who has been procured by the Secretariat to perform independent reviews of it and to manage the initial transition of Baroness Scotland. He has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so.

Where the Bahamas stands with this is unknown. From what we in the DNA understand was that the Bahamas supported the candidacy of Sir Ronald Sanders for the post of Commonwealth Secretariat but that was either changed, or the announcement of his endorsement was made in error and hence we are officially on record in having supported Baroness Scotland to the post. The politics of this seems trite at a cursory glance, because Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, has gone on record defending the Baroness and supporting her candidacy throughout. However, what the DNA wants to know now is what is our status with the Commonwealth Secretariat and have these revelations of profligate spending, gross abuse of power and apparent corruption seeped into the Bahamas and been endorsed by the government of the day?

The DNA understands that the Bahamas has undertaken several projects within the last 12 months that were paid for by the Secretariat through donors, or co-funded with Bahamian dollars, for which the Commonwealth Secretariat provided technical assistance.

For example, we undertook diagnostic studies for structural reform in the public services; hosted and co-funded conferences in the Bahamas for the education sector, social sector and the financial services sector via the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force; launched an Education Hub at the Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers meeting in the Bahamas; launched projects on bond market diversification, strengthening the judicial system for the better administration of justice; and last, but not least, various projects that dealt with the mining and management of our natural resources, from aragonite to ocean management.

The Bahamian public is not aware of the status of any of these projects, the details of the reports produced or the efficacy and soundness of the progeny of such scopes of work.

The Bahamian people do not know who was involved, where they came from, were they part of the Baroness’s network of special friends and contractors and whether our officials are involved with them to any great extent now that we have gone on record for having endorsed her when we seemingly pulled back from her main challenger.

Also, the public wishes to know a full break down of the activities that we have been involved with the Secretariat, the level of spending and whether we are still spending money to be a part of the Secretariat. Considering the fact that the Bahamas is in a deep financial mess, we find it disturbing that we would in any way, shape or form, endorse such wasteful and disgusting behaviour in the Secretariat when we have our own challenges.

We also wish for the current administration to call out the behaviour of the Commonwealth Secretariat – and promptly. This is not just a matter of us alone any more, but we are a part of a global community and our name, reputation and good standing should be upheld at all times.

Youri Kemp is the Democratic National Alliance candidate for Garden Hills and spokesperson for the Economy and Finance.