The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

PARLIAMENT’S spending watchdog has questioned Jerome Fitzgerald, the Prime Minister’s former senior policy adviser, as part of its probe into whether taxpayer monies financed building vouchers distributed in the name of PLP candidates prior to the May 2026 general election.

Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, revealed to Tribune Business on Monday night that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which the Free National Movement (FNM) controls, has interviewed Senator Fitzgerald, now minister of economic affairs in the second Davis administration, as part of its inquiries into the $1.5m worth of vouchers acquired by the Ministry of Finance in March and April.

These is nothing to suggest Mr Fitzgerald has done anything wrong in relation to the vouchers controversy, but Mr Pintard said his answers had resulted in the Committee summoning two “very senior people from the Ministry of Finance” for questioning that was due to take place yesterday.

The FNM leader, describing these interviews as necessary to “close certain loopholes”, said the Public Accounts Committee is now “at the tail end” of its probe into the vouchers and said a final report on its findings could be released by the end of October if procedures remain on schedule.

“We have a meeting tomorrow [yesterday] where we will continue that by asking for finance officers from the ministry to come in,” Mr Pintard told this newspaper. “We interviewed the senior policy advisor to the Prime Minister, Jerome Fitzgerald, and that precipitated the need to close certain loopholes.

“We are really at the tail end of the vouchers investigation. We will have two of these finance officers in tomorrow [yesterday]. Two very senior people from the Ministry of Finance. We are definitely at tail end of the voucher investigation.” Mr Pintard did not name the two Ministry of Finance officials set to be interviewed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Tribune Business previously reported that the Government’s own procurement records showed the Ministry of Finance collectively purchased more than $1.5m worth of building vouchers during March and April 2026 in the general election run-up. Some $663,437 worth were acquired in April, including $413,437 from Freeport-based Contractors Direct, with the $250,000 balance obtained from Premier Importers.

Both purchases were made by the ‘direct award’ method, meaning there was no competitive bidding, and took place on April 13, 2026 - less than one month before the general election.The vouchers were acquired for the purpose of obtaining “building materials in Grand Bahama and Abaco” - seemingly to assist still-struggling residents with rebuilding and repairing their homes more than six-and-a-half years after Hurricane Dorian devastated both islands.

Controversy, though, arose after Premier Importers revealed the vouchers had been purchased by the Ministry of Finance. But the vouchers, which were issued in “amounts of $200, $300 and $500”, carried the names and signatures of Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) election candidates and officials, raising concerns - vehemently denied and disputed by the governing party - that taxpayer monies were being employed to finance its campaign.

The April 2026 purchases also added to the $900,000 worth of building materials vouchers purchased by the Ministry of Finance in March. Some $250,000 was sourced from 21st Century Building & Hardware, located on Palm Beach Street, along with a further $200,000 from Wulff Road-based FYP. Some $150,000 was obtained from each of Cartwright’s Building Supplies, Pinder’s Enterprise and Hanson Building Materials to bring the total to $900,000 for that month.

Mr Pintard, outlining the likely schedule and what needs to happen before the Public Accounts Committee presents its formal report on the building material vouchers in the House of Assembly, and releases it to the public, suggested that it may need “two more sessions” to wrap-up the probe - yesterday and an additional week.

If that happened, “the very following week we will seek to have agreement from the Committee that these are the discussions we have had, and these are the elements that ought to be in the report. That will be two additional weeks that will take us to the end of the first week in October.

“It will take us probably a week to put together a report,” Mr Pintard added. This would then be released to all Public Accounts Committee members, plus witnesses, for their feedback, response and comments to ensure it is fair and accurate, and allow for any further rebuttals or suggested corrections.

“The report should be towards the end of October. The report into the voucher programme should be ready to go,” Mr Pintard told Tribune Business. He previously affirmed that the Committee will now also probe the Government’s handling and management of the National Investment Fund following the confirmation by John Rolle, the Central Bank governor, that the legally-mandated governance structures were not in place to set-up and oversee it.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s executive director, yesterday told Tribune Business that while the governance deficiencies could undermine public trust and confidence as well as The Bahamas’ reputation among external observers, it was too early to “speculate” on how the Fund’s monies - including $263.3m taken out during the March 2026 quarter - had been spent and utilised.

“I think a lot of it is still speculation in terms of what it is, where it is supposed to be, and how these things have moved,” he argued. “To me, this goes back to what ORG feels is critical - the level of transparency and accountability in these things.”

The National Investment Funds Act 2022, which was passed into law by the first Davis administration and sets out the Fund’s legal framework, pledged that it would abide by the established Santiago Principles that set out how countries should manage and oversee sovereign wealth funds. These require that citizens understand how such funds are spending public money, their status and what level of oversight is being provided.

Mr Aubry acknowledged that in The Bahamas’ case, the Board - which Mr Rolle confirmed has never been properly convened - plays “a key role” in its governance and oversight. “That’s the dichotomy in this Act,” he said. “It seems to lay out in writing an intent to ingrain transparency and accountability.

“This one specifically refers to meeting a certain standard, so in not meeting that standard, that can always have a potential impact on our external reputation but also intrernal comfort and confidence.” Such an outcome, the ORG chief added, could ultimately fuel “scepticism and political rhetoric”.

“It’s not what we want to provide people with an understanding and comfort that then policies and laws put in place are being used to their greatest effect,” Mr Aubry said. “It is the same that we see with the Freedom of Information Act, with public procurement, with the Ombudsman.

“All these mechanisms are in place to promote transparency and accountability. They sound really good in law but, until we see them in practice, they don’t achieve their intention. That intent is very important. It becomes an important role for the Government to move into this space of proactive transparency and two-way dialogue with the state. It reminds Bahamians to get informed, get involved, instead of being a tag-line.”

Mr Aubry said he was also focused more on the Fund, and its impact and governance, “long-term”. He added that the “immediate response” to the Opposition’s and others’ concerns should be total transparency around how monies have been used along with a process and timeline to come into “the full mandate and compliance with the Act”.