The Tribune

AS the curtain is lowered today on the Free National Movement’s first year in office, the second year opens on a sombre note. High unemployment, a medical and educational system under siege, damage from the last hurricane still to be repaired, and a crippled Treasury, unable to meet the demands of an expectant people, promised much, but who now have to face reality – the cupboard is bare.

One expects noise from the Opposition benches — especially as there are only four of them and they have to keep raising their voices to remind the public that they are still part of the show — and someday might again be relevant.

But the subjects on which they choose to make their voices heard only draws attention to their own inept five-year administration.

Fred Mitchell, for example, then Foreign Affairs Minister, during the world recession when investors were keeping their money close to their chests, announced in June, 2013, that he would be out of office for most of that year looking for investors. He said a substantial part of his time would be spent in the Middle East and Asia — an area plagued with major problems of their own — hunting down new funding sources for our “capital-starved” country. He explained that his ministry had been given a mandate to find new capital for The Bahamas as traditional sources were winding down on lending.

“This does not mean abandoning our traditional friend,” he said, “but at a time when our country is capital starved and there is excess capital in areas of the world outside our normal sphere of influence it would be foolhardy not for us to search,” he said.

And true to his word he globe-trotted, never stopping to give Bahamians an accounting of either the cost or success of his trips. Three years later, he was still globe-trotting, stopping only once to give the Bahamian people a surprise - about $500,000 worth of “high grade phosphate” fertiliser that had been donated to The Bahamas by the Government of Morocco and was available for purchase “at a very reasonable price”.

Mr Mitchell considered the donation a reflection of the “strong relationship” between The Bahamas and Morocco while then Agriculture and Fisheries Minister V Alfred Gray emphasised that agriculture will be treated with “particular importance” under the Christie administration. At the time, The Tribune published a photograph of Mr Mitchell and Mr Grey displaying the fertiliser.

Explaining how the donation came about, Mr Mitchell said diplomatic relations and technical cooperation agreements between Morocco and the Bahamas were first struck in 2012 at a conference in Casablanca regarding “the situation in Syria”. Mr Mitchell considered the donation a reflection of the “strong relationship” between the Bahamas and Morocco while Minister Gray emphasised that agriculture will be treated with “particular importance” under the Christie administration.

That was the first and last time that we heard of technical cooperation with Morocco, and, as for the special phosphate fertiliser, we presume it was sold.

As far as we can recall, Mr Mitchell has never announced the number of investments he negotiated — if any — to make his globe-trotting – at the expense of the Treasury – beneficial to The Bahamas.

And yet we have PLP Leader “Brave” Davis criticising Prime Minister Minnis on his first official overseas trip with a large delegation to attend the recent CARICOM meeting in Haiti. The Bahamas is a member of CARICOM. Last month Prime Minister Minnis was also in Lima, Peru for the Third CEO Summit of the Americas, where he was invited to speak. It was at this meeting that he was unfairly criticised for talking about crime in The Bahamas, oblivious of the fact that crime was the subject of the conference, and each member had a contribution to make on that subject. The prime minister, and a delegation, also attended a CHOGM conference, which also met in London last month. The Bahamas is an active member of these official bodies, which deal with problems common to our area. As The Bahamas is no longer a lost backwater drifting off the coast of Florida, a Bahamian delegation has to attend these conferences. As this was the first time for the introduction of new ministers to areas in which they must be active, it would not be surprising if the first delegations were large.

However, these are a new government’s first trips of international introduction from which Bahamians expect an expense report as promised. But in fairness, Bahamians have to wait until more time has passed. If the FNM abuse this travel as did the PLP, then will be the time to complain — but at the moment, it is still too early.

In the meantime, we are still awaiting an accounting of the cost of former Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell’s globetrotting expenses during the Christie administration. Perhaps Mr “Brave” Davis can oblige by producing this for Bahamians.