The Tribune

By S Timothy Roberts

Tribune Editor

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
- James Madison


The Progressive Liberal Party in their Blueprint for Change (2021) noted, "We will pass anti-corruption legislation within our first 100 days in office."
Prime Minister Philip 'Brave' Davis has not shied away from his desire to provide good governance of the country, affirming to the public that his party is the one that accomplishes this goal.
Davis himself, during his Parliamentary Service Bill remarks in July of 2023 said, "...the ultimate beneficiaries of these improvements will be the Bahamian people – the ones to whom we are accountable for all that we do and the laws that we pass."
Throughout his initial term, the Prime Minister has unhesitatingly maintained that his administration's paramount focus remains delivering effective governance to all citizens.
Yet here we are, at the beginning of his second term still waiting for accountability on numerous issues. What we have received instead is incomplete answers, side-stepping and complete avoidance of accountability; a standard they themselves set, and arguably fall short of.
The current focus related to this crisis of faith in the promised accountability from the current administration revolves around claims of improper handling of hundreds of millions of funds which were put into, then taken out of the recently created National Investment Fund by means the Opposition alleges — and the Public Accounts Committee is now investigating — did not appear to be in accordance with the law.


THE NIF SAGA

Looking back to December 2022, the government replaced the Sovereign Wealth Fund with the National Investment Fund (NIF). At the time then acting PM Chester Cooper during the House of Assembly debate said, "This bill ensures that investment in private share holdings of the government are managed professionally for the long term benefit of citizens of The Bahamas. It ensures that the revenues from natural resources and investment that The Bahamas contributes to the economic certainty of the country and its people."
Then in March of the following year Parliament authorised $300m in borrowing into the NIF. Davis said during that session of parliament, "The purpose of the National Investment Fund is to acquire valuable assets that will help build a prosperous future for ALL Bahamians. We cannot build a Fund for national development and then fail to resource it properly."
The balance reported in December 2025 was $265.3 million but collapsed to $200,000 by March 2026 according to the government's own Statement of Budgetary Performance, Q3 FY2025/26.
In May of this year Finance Minister Michael Halkitis disclosed a second, larger, previously unmentioned transfer of $700 million, leftovers from "excess borrowing." He said in his budget communication: "Our gross borrowings during the nine months in the fiscal year amounted to $2.5 billion, while our debt repayments totalled $1.8 billion. However, the excess borrowing receipts were transferred to the National Investment Fund and not used for deficit financing." At the follow-up press conference he noted that "additional money that was raised and was not spent was put in a national investment fund for future infrastructure development."
In June Halkitis admitted in the House that there is no (statutorily-required) board. Opposition Leader Michael Pintard immediately questioned, "If there is no board, how did they go about establishing this special purpose vehicle to receive $700 million, because from all intents and purposes, they can just put it in anybody's account because that is not an entity."
Pintard has since called for an "immediate and comprehensive explanation" of what he termed the "conspicuous absence of any meaningful public information concerning the governance, management, operation and legal administration of the Fund."
The OPM Communications Director Latrae Rahming responded, explaining that the funds were used "primarily" to support the Airport Infrastructure Programme.
Pintard doubled down saying "if you first put the money in the consolidated fund, you've borrowed the money. You need parliamentary approval to take the money out of the consolidated fund and put it in the national investment fund."
Central Bank Governor John Rolle confirms the lack of a statutory board in writing. "I can advise that my instrument of appointment to the Board of Governors of the NIF was dated the 7th of August 2025, for a period of three years, with effect from 30th June, 2025"; Rolle was appointed to the board over a year earlier — a board that has never once convened — and this is now on the record from the Central Bank itself, instead of being just an accusation from the Opposition.

Pintard said 'it's fraud with public money' and noted that the Public Accounts Committee has opened a probe with results expected by the end of October.
In the first session of Parliament after summer break the government shared a response to the issues raised.
Davis said, "it is the responsibility of any government to safeguard public resources, ensure that those resources serve the public interest and address legitimate questions concerning their administration." And that "$310.9 million of the Bahamas' National Investment Fund proceeds have been strategically utilized to strengthen public infrastructure."
Set beside the Act itself, Section 11(2) says: a fund "shall be managed according to... the principles of good governance, including transparency and accountability... and international best practices, including the Santiago Principles."
Section 8 assigns the power to open the fund's account to the Board, not the Ministry; Section 27 requires the Board - not the Ministry - to report quarterly and annually.
The statement's own account says "during the period before the Fund's governance arrangements became fully operational, the Ministry of Finance acted on the basis that the Public Finance Management Act governed the administration and application of these public resources through the Ministry and the Treasury." This is the closest it comes to conceding what Halkitis already admitted in June: the Act's own machinery wasn't running while hundreds of millions moved under its name.
Today's statement provided no mention of the $700 million figure at all - only the narrower $310.9 million is addressed. No Investment Committee (which, under Section 18, only the Board can appoint).
The government stated that it "intends to fully cooperate with the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee on this matter."
The conclusion (for now), after a long wait for the Prime Minister to finally address the NIF controversy in Parliament, leaves many questions still unanswered. He did note that the money had gone toward legitimate public projects and that the government followed proper legal advice, but his statement never mentioned the $700 million at all, never explained why the board wasn't running, and didn't answer most of the specific questions that had been raised.
While the government says it will cooperate with the ongoing investigation, many of the core questions about who approved what, and why the fund operated without its required oversight, remain unanswered.


Dream of an unclouded day

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman."
- Louis D. Brandeis, Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It (1914)

Despite the Davis administration's verbal commitment to accountability, transparency and good governance, we are often left in the proverbial dark on a great many matters of national importance; particularly if we believe we actually live in a democracy and that government is supposed to be 'by the people and of the people'.

While it may be an old quote coined by a different political party, 'government in the sunshine' is not a mere partisan slogan, it is a necessary philosophy that citizens and governments should aspire to uphold.
The government must work for the people, and their best interests. No decisions involving legislation or finances to be used for the benefit of Bahamians should be made in secret, hidden in clouds of secrecy. Good governance does not just include accountability, it demands it.
And while mechanisms for transparency and accountability are written (at least to some degree) within much of our legislation, we have seen very little from any administration over the many decades since our independence (likely much less before).
We are conditioned to accept incomplete answers; we give leeway to political side-stepping, and worse, silence.
"The very fact that so much in politics is done in the dark, behind closed doors, promotes suspicion."
— Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom (1913)


Civic Responsibility

The UN Secretary-General's guidance on democracy puts the principle plainly: "For this to work, the people must be aware of what is happening in their country's governance."
We live in a country where those who rule us do not believe we deserve answers. Detailed information about the governance conducted in our name — and paid for with our money — is not something they believe they owe us.
In a country such as ours we all must be vigilant and ready to do what is needed to have the accountability and transparency inherent to good governance.
To our Prime Minister and his administration, as well as the opposition and all government officials; know that words are not enough, and that transparency - a government in the sunshine - must put action to promises if they are to be believed at all