There is much shock and some anger in the community over the government's decision to withhold for a year a report by consultants Black & Veatch on the Rubis gas leak at Robinson Road.

The consultants concluded there was exposure to cancer-causing chemicals as a result of the gas release which began in late 2012, early 2013. Rubis closed the station on February 8, 2013.

Remediation efforts have taken place and are ongoing. The station was reopened.

The director of the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission, Philip Weech, said Rubis reported the fuel release on January 19, 2013. The Black & Veatch report was finished on February 20, 2014. The government withheld the report. It was only released on Friday last week after upset residents of Robinson Road complained at a town hall meeting on the issue the night before. Otherwise, we probably still would not know what the consultants said.

The BEST Commission has said it did not release the report because it did not have authorization from the Office of the Attorney General. The Office of the Attorney General has given no coherent reason why it blocked the release of the report.

The area falls within the Marathon constituency. On Monday, Marathon MP Jerome Fitzgerald, the minister of education for the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), said he is satisfied that government officials are doing what needs to be done to address the matter. Fitzgerald also said that he understands the "reasons and rationale" behind the decision to withhold the document.

Amid claims that the Ministry of the Environment bungled the education campaign following the gas leak, Environment Minister Kenred Dorsett suggested yesterday that the process could have been more transparent. He also stressed that there was "no conspiracy" to hide the report and that this incident is a "teachable moment".

The government should have released the report once it received it and had a reasonable time to review it. Fitzgerald and Dorsett should simply say the government made a mistake. This is not a "teachable moment" nor were the government's "reasons and rationale" understandable. Withholding the report for a year was wrong.

The government of Perry Christie should apologize for keeping this information from the people. The lives of residents and employees in the area may have been compromised as a result of exposure to the gas. These people have a right to know what happened. They have a right to be fully informed.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian