The Tribune

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

A familiar story played out last week over the deadline for public disclosures – yet again, a number of Parliamentarians did not file by the deadline, with several requesting extensions. The same old story.

The deadline for disclosures was March 2. This comes as no surprise to anyone required to file their financial disclosures. The deadline in the Public Disclosure Act is clearly listed as March 1 each year – this year that fell on a Sunday so March 2 was the deadline. Each Senator or Member of Parliament has had to be doing this throughout this term – bar those who are recent appointees or the newly elected member for Golden Isles.

And yet, here we are again with some seeking extensions. National Security Minister Wayne Munroe and Environment Minister Zane Lightbourne were ministerial level officials seeking extension.

The new Golden Isles MP was lagging behind a little, telling The Tribune he was expecting to file on March 9 after he received his bank statements. Leslia Miller-Brice MP asked for a two-week extension.

Part of the trouble is that finding out who or who has not filed on time comes down to the persistence of the press. Every year, it has become an appalling tradition that the media has to pester politicians to find out if they have obeyed the law.

As of March 9, The Tribune reported that those who had not commented on whether they met the deadline included Fred Mitchell, Keith Bell, Alfred Sears, Ginger Moxey, Jomo Campbell, Lisa Rahming, Patricia Deveaux, Leon Lundy, Wayde Watson, Kirk Cornish, John Pinder and Leonardo Lightbourne.

With an election around the corner, you can bet that those who cannot find the time to say whether or not they filed will somehow find the time to post campaign promotions on their social media, or hit the trail shaking hands and asking people for their vote. How about simply taking the time to say yes, I met the deadline. Or explain why not if they did not.

In fact, take it out of the hands of the politicians completely to say yes or no. The chairman of the Public Disclosures Commission is Bishop Victor Cooper. There should be no reason in this day and age, where there is surely an electronic record of what disclosures have been received, why it cannot be confirmed how many people did not file on time.

However, when asked last week by The Tribune, Bishop Cooper said he did not have a rough figure for how many officials had filed because the board had not yet met. Imagine being in charge of the whole commission and not even having a rough figure for the one thing you do.

There are, in the law, consequences for delinquent filings.

The procedure goes like this – anyone who fails to provide a declaration as required under the law, or if the commission is not satisfied with any aspect of the declaration, that is then to be reported to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

The Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition is then able to publish a communication to the House of Assembly any information provided by the commission, or cause to be published to the Senate that information. They can also authorise that information being provided to the Attorney General or the Commissioner of Police.

It is an offence to fail to make a declaration without reasonable cause, to make a false statement in a declaration or fail to give information or explanation to the commission if requested.

The penalty for that offence is not small – it can be a fine up to $10,000 or jail for up to two years, or both.

In addition, if a deliberate non-disclosure relates to a property in The Bahamas, that can be declared forfeit to the government. If it is a property outside The Bahamas, the individual can be ordered to pay an amount equivalent to that property’s value.

Notably, one of the details in there is that the details of who has not disclosed should be provided to both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Either of those can then publish it. Neither has. We still do not know who declared on time last year, and who did not.

The failure to obey the law when it comes to disclosures is not just a local concern either – the US Department of State takes notice. In 2024, it published a report which noted that the country had failed to release public disclosure reports for more than a decade. That last one was issued in 2011 and only covered declarations up to 2008. Children have been born and grown to adulthood in the time since 2008, yet the public cannot find out if their leaders have obeyed the law.

Last week, there was a back and forth in Parliament between former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Wayne Munroe. Dr Minnis rightly asked whether public declarations were being scrutinised for suspicious jumps in wealth, while Mr Munroe questioned how Dr Minnis could know whether investigations were taking place. As Matt Aubry, of the Organisation for Responsible Governance, said at the time, the lack of transparency doesn’t help anyone have confidence in the system.

Dr Minnis would find his argument strengthened if public disclosure filings had been gazetted and released under his tenure as prime minister. They were not. At one stage, in 2018, he instructed the commission to give information on those who did not file to the Attorney General – with two senators at the time not having filed their annual disclosures by mid-August.

When in opposition, Dr Minnis often criticised then Prime Minister Perry Christie for not holding officials who failed to make disclosures accountable – even calling for those people to be arrested.

In December, FNM leader Michael Pintard warned that he would publicly release the list from last year if Bishop Cooper continued to withhold the information. Bishop Cooper has not gazetted that information. Mr Pintard has not lived up to his warning. Fred Mitchell, who has previously said he is “irritated” by journalists asking questions on disclosures, responded to Mr Pintard’s warning on publishing the names of those who failed to meet last year’s deadline by saying “be careful what you do and what you say”.

There is a profound lack of urgency and respect for this law. Some will argue the law should be scrapped if it is not being upheld, but that is to surrender one of the few checks and balances that exist. Rather, the public should hold representatives to account. To every politician that has to declare, publish your receipt. To those who do not, expect not to get anyone’s vote. After all, if we are a nation of laws, why should anyone obey a law if our leaders do not? This is about setting an example.

It would be naïve of me to think that change is going to happen any time soon – too many words have been said by political figures and yet still no disclosures since 2008 have been published.

On a political front, it is beyond me why the FNM – which insists all its members have declared on time – would not seek to publish the list.

A reminder, failing to disclose as required by the law is a crime. The public ought to know who the criminals are.