The Tribune

EDITOR, the Tribune.

Your Tribune headline and editorial of today bear the final testament to the nearly five years of reckless and destructive PLP financial mismanagement.

A party supported, and in many ways managed, by seemingly educated men and women. And so it is all the more concerning that this kind of thing can happen while these people are in charge. And that concern, most assuredly must consider that if the mismanagement was not the result of gross ignorance or stupidity, then it could only be the result of abysmal neglect, or malfeasance, or both.

How in the name of God can a Government, budget a tax revenue (VAT), anticipated to be a quarter of a billion dollars, which actually turns out to be more than double the estimate and, at the end of the day, it has not made any improvement in our financial standing in the credit markets of the world.

There are many more questions, of a similar nature, and most have been well documented elsewhere. But why did the Government give a decorating contract to a very close party supporter, to decorate downtown Nassau, when these businesses could have, and would have, done a far, far better job of doing this on their own and “$aving” the Treasury Three hundred and seventy some thousand dollars that it does not have. So why did they spend it? Yes, we all know why.

And, when virtually every country on this earth, manages motor vehicle and driver licensing, registration and identification, and computer software being what it is, and very easily transportable, how could this Government legitimately spend eight million dollars, acquiring a software programme that there must be hundreds, if not thousands of, already developed, available, and ideally suited to our needs. How much did we pay for this software, and how much went to the agency selling it to us? This sounds too much like an Alstom/BEC transaction. The Government has quickly revealed the details on the Wisdom/Florarama transaction, including price, and competitive bidders, so maybe they will likewise give us the full details on the Road Traffic system purchase.

Perry Gladstone Christie has now cast his, and the PLP party’s, legacy in BRONZE and they will now go down in history as the Prime Minister and the Government of the Bahamas, that has brought this country to the very brink of bankruptcy. This on the eve of its fiftieth anniversary of MAJORITY RULE. Please “hang your heads to the setting sun, Bahamaland ” The Ship of State has now foundered on that wide and treacherous shoal that Timothy Gibson warned us about way back when. And sadly, it had nothing to do with the weather.

MONKEEDOO

Nassau,

December 21, 2016.