The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement chairman Dr Duane Sands has accused Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis of acting as though he is above answering for public money, after the prime minister brushed off reporters who asked how much King Charles III’s visit cost taxpayers.

“Must he think he’s the king,” Dr Sands asked in a voice note yesterday, “the real king of The Bahamas, who don’t have to answer no questions about how he’s spending up our money?”

Asked by reporters about the cost of the visit, Mr Davis replied jokingly: “The dollar figure? I don’t know anything about that. Why you want to raise that?” Seemingly frustrated, he then walked away from reporters.

Dr Sands questioned whether the prime minister genuinely did not know.

“This is typical Emperor Philip,” he said. “When he don’t answer a question, he pleads ignorance. He gets angry with reporters. He gets angry with the Bahamian people and the opposition when we ask questions about how he’s spending our money.”

He compared the prime minister’s response with the United Kingdom.

“If this was in the UK,” Dr Sands said, “the King and the government would have to regularly disclose and answer questions about finances related to the royal family.

“But here at home, where the government has an obligation to disclose spending to Parliament and the Bahamian people, Philip just get vexed even when you ask him basic questions. Because he’s so giddy, he’s so drunk on power and constantly partying. He doesn’t think he has to answer questions.”

He said the cost of that silence was being felt by ordinary Bahamians.

“Next time you see one big pothole, next time you have to wait hours at PMH or the Rand, next time your light go off,” he said, “just remember how much of your VAT money and tax money filling up certain people’s bank accounts while you got to stretch your dollars.

“The PLP is hearing people complaining about how much they did for the King while they neglecting the Bahamian people. So you can understand why Emperor Philip always ducking, hiding, mumbling, and running away from the reporters. As far as he concerned, the Bahamian people money that’s his own personal piggy bank.”

Dr Sands listed several matters he said had not been adequately explained to the public. These were government contracts he alleged were connected to slain businessman Warren “Spy” Ellis and to Eric Gardiner, election spending, the National Investment Fund, and the financial arrangements surrounding the electricity grid.

In September, the Ministry of Housing and Land Reform said it had found no record of Ellis, or any company owned or controlled by him, receiving a housing contract from the Davis administration. Gardiner was arrested in the United States in May and charged with cocaine and firearms conspiracy offences.

Dr Sands also revived questions about Mr Davis’ 2022 trip to Bermuda with a PLP delegation, where the prime minister spoke at the convention of Bermuda’s ruling Progressive Labour Party. Dr Sands said the trip was initially paid for with public funds.

At the time, Mr Davis told the House of Assembly that the government had paid for the chartered flight and that the party would reimburse the Public Treasury. In January 2023, Press Secretary Clint Watson said the PLP had repaid the full cost, which he put at just under $60,000.

The government has yet to say what the royal visit cost. It was the King’s first visit to The Bahamas as monarch.

On Monday, a day before the King arrived, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell could not give a figure or say whether the expenses had been itemised. He insisted the spending was appropriate for a visit by the King of The Bahamas and would not “break the bank”.

In September, Finance Minister Michael Halkitis said agencies were still working out the costs and that he understood they would be shared.

Mr Davis has said the visit brought The Bahamas welcome international exposure, and that he had been getting calls from around the world about the King’s presence and the country’s hospitality.

The Bahamas National Reparations Committee has also objected to taxpayers funding the visit, citing Britain’s history of slavery and colonialism.