The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune. 

I write as a concerned Bahamian who is increasingly troubled by what appears to be a growing culture of secrecy, evasion and disregard for public accountability under this PLP administration.

 There comes a point when the public must stop treating these incidents as isolated occurrences and begin examining the bigger picture. When a government repeatedly avoids answering legitimate questions, refuses to provide meaningful explanations and appears unwilling to submit to scrutiny, Bahamians have every reason to be concerned.

 First, consider the National Investment Fund. Significant questions have been raised about public funds withdrawn from this fund, yet Bahamians are still waiting for a comprehensive and transparent accounting. How much money was withdrawn? Who authorised the withdrawals? Where did the money go? What was the legal authority for these transactions? These are not unreasonable questions. They are fundamental questions of public finance and accountability. The National Investment Fund is not the personal bank account of the government, nor does it belong to the PLP. It belongs to the Bahamian people, who have every right to know how their money is being used.

 Second, when questions were raised about these matters, the Prime Minister’s response, rather than providing the public with the answers it deserved, was to avoid direct engagement with the media. This is unacceptable. The Prime Minister is the head of government, not someone above public scrutiny. The media has a responsibility to ask difficult questions, and the Prime Minister has a responsibility to answer them. Avoiding the press does not make difficult questions disappear; it only deepens public suspicion.

 Now we have another troubling development. The Attorney General has indicated that he will not give evidence before the Public Accounts Committee, reportedly citing privilege. This raises serious questions. The Public Accounts Committee is not some political debating club established to embarrass the government. It is a vital parliamentary oversight mechanism whose responsibility is to examine public expenditure and hold those entrusted with public funds accountable.

 If privilege is being invoked, the legal basis and scope of that privilege should be clearly explained. However, privilege should not become a convenient shield behind which public officials can avoid legitimate scrutiny. No office, regardless of how powerful or prestigious, should be treated as beyond accountability.

 What makes these developments particularly disturbing is the pattern they appear to establish: public money is withdrawn without a satisfactory public accounting, the Prime Minister avoids direct questions, and now the Attorney General declines to cooperate with parliamentary scrutiny.

 At what point do we stop accepting these explanations and recognise that something is fundamentally wrong with the government’s approach to transparency?

 Accountability is not optional. Transparency is not a favor that governments extend to citizens when it is politically convenient. Both are essential obligations of democratic government. Those who exercise public power must understand that they are custodians of public resources, not owners of them.

 Bahamians should not have to beg their government for answers about their own money. We should not have to question why our Prime Minister is reluctant to face legitimate questions, nor should we have to wonder whether constitutional oversight bodies are being denied the cooperation necessary to perform their duties.

Robert A. Heinlein once said: “Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives”.

 Those words should serve as a warning to every government, particularly one entrusted with the responsibility of governing a democratic society.

 A government that has nothing to hide should have nothing to fear from transparency. If the administration is confident that everything was done properly, then it should welcome scrutiny, provide the documentation and answer the questions.

 The Bahamian people are not asking for special treatment. They are demanding something far more fundamental: honesty, openness and accountability from those elected and appointed to serve them.

Government must never confuse being elected with being entitled to govern without answering to the people.

ERVIN MISSICK

Freeport,

Grand Bahama

November 5, 2026.