The swiftness with which Prime Minister Perry Christie moved to defend his good name in the face of an allegation by Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Michael Pintard left many wishing Christie would rush with equal speed to provide more accountable, open and good government. Christie said in a statement on Thursday night that Pintard will "have to account for his defamatory assault in a court of law".
The matter has to do with the recent arrest and subsequent release of Bahamas Consul General to Atlanta Randy Rolle, and Pintard's suggestion that the release came as a result of political intervention. That matter is now a legal issue. We understand Pintard has already received a letter from Christie's attorneys.
The telling of "bold face lies" or providing misinformation is of course unjustifiable. But the call for Pintard to account for alleged defamation adds relevance to the long list of matters Christie should account to the Bahamian people on.
Addressing an anti-corruption forum in the Cayman Islands last year March, Christie said he hoped his remarks would spark "a frank dialogue about transparency, accountability and trust as a model of good governance". He then outlined commitments, including a statement that before the end of 2014, the government hoped to introduce specific legislation dealing with anti-corruption in the form of either a new Prevention of Corruption Act or Integrity in Public Life Act. These were never introduced.
Christie also said renewed consideration will be given to the draft Freedom of Information Act to allow citizens greater access to government information and to provide them with the tools to keep public administration transparent and accountable. At the time, he also said the government was working on a national anti-corruption action plan which will build on existing initiatives, and include several pillars.
One is a "renewed focus on quality leadership and in inculcating a sustained political commitment to fight corruption".
The Cayman speech was a significant one. It outlined substantial commitments to deal with accountability, most of which have not yet materialized. Swift action is needed on accountability on multiple levels. Too many matters have seemingly faded from the government's consciousness with no full reporting to the public. One of the more recent issues that falls into this category has been reported on extensively. It has to do with the male dorm at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) that was torched in January.
While Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works Philip Brave Davis provided an incomplete report to Parliament on the issue of the BAMSI contract for the dorm, the government has scoffed at demands for a full reporting on the status of insurance for those contracts prior to the fire.
Davis said in February insurance was in place for the dorm. He later said this was not the case. But there has been no explanation on how he came to mislead Parliament. To our knowledge, the prime minister has not reprimanded him. And we have not heard of anyone being held accountable in Davis' ministry. Public money will be spent again, due to an "administrative error". Perhaps the government does not see this as significant.
A full report could point to the extent of the breakdown of systems within the Ministry of Works. If this is indeed the case, the public has a right to know. But the government has refused to answer critical questions on this matter. It is now faced with questions over its Urban Renewal Small Homes Repairs program.
The Nassau Guardian today reports on critical findings of the auditor general in respect of this project, touted by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) as a major initiative. The auditor general has found that there has been a lack of accountability, transparency and due diligence in the execution of this program, its management and the quality of work done.
The government must make a full report on this matter as well. It appears that in yet another instance public funds have been placed in jeopardy. Again, someone needs to be held accountable.
Contempt
The contempt with which the Christie administration treats the media and the general public in the face of these demands is simply appalling. Attacking the media and accusing journalists of bias will not erase what is so glaringly obvious, and that is this government is anything but accountable. It many cases, Christie and his ministers behave as if they are spending their own money, as if the public purse does not exist. There have been so many other demands that have gone unaddressed.
Christie has yet to report to the country on the letter of intent debacle, which also emanated from the Ministry of Works.
Repeatedly, he said he would provide a full explanation on the matter involving Bamboo Town MP Renward Wells' signing of the LOI last July for a $600 million waste to energy project at the city dump. Under intense public pressure, Christie fired Wells, months after asking him to resign. The prime minister never provided an explanation. Yet Christie shamelessly speaks of accountability.
Eight months after he and Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) CEO Philip Bentley announced that they had finalized a deal to give back just under two percent of CWC's shares in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) to be held in trust on behalf of the Bahamian people, the government continues to keep this deal away from the public.
We have been unable to properly analyze the agreement because we have not seen it. We do not have enough space to analyze this government's failure to be accountable to the Bahamian people. It has refused to announce any overhaul of the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) in the face of multiple audits that point to alleged abuses.
Instead, we are hearing it will spend more of our precious tax dollars to audit the auditors.
Meanwhile, at every turn we must cough up more money to pay value-added tax. More than two years after the government spent $800,000 of public money on conducting a review of allegations made against then National Insurance Board (NIB) Director Algernon Cargill and then NIB Chairman Greg Moss, we still to this day do not know if that was money well spent, and what improvements if any were made to provide stronger protections for our social security fund.
Was the money spent merely to get rid of Cargill? Of course, Moss was also fired. But that came after he insulted Christie over his handling of the NIB matter. If Christie wants to talk about accountability, he should finally live up to his pledge to provide a full costing of his trip to Sri Lanka, the Vatican and London in November 2013. We suspected when he said he would, that there would not be any full reporting. Christie has been known to make these types of declarations, we presume to silence debate.
During his first administration when political contributions backfired in a very nasty and public way, Christie promised a full accounting of Mohammed Harajchi's contributions to the PLP, but never provided any information in this regard.
As Christie declared in that Cayman Islands speech over a year ago, transparency, accountability and trust are a model of good governance. On all fronts, his administration continues to fall short.
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