THE majority of nurses who voted in yesterday's strike poll cast ballots in favour of industrial action, according to Bahamas Nurses Union president Amancha Williams last night.

“We had close to 300 to 400 people vote and only persons voted no and so we know if over 300 to 400 persons voted yes and the majority came from PMH that states something and so we’re happy to know that nurses made the effort,” Ms Williams told The Tribune when contacted.

“We know the nurses are ready to go.”

She said in Freeport, Grand Bahama, the Department of Public Health and Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre there were majority votes in favour of action.

However, votes in the Family Island were unclear. 

Infrastructure, failure of government to agree to a new industrial agreement and some people continuing to wait for promotions were some of the reasons for the BNU’s ballot.

Mrs Williams said if the vote is successful and strike certificate obtained, industrial action could involve withdrawing services completely.

“If you can give the police officers promotions every year, why can’t you give the nurses every year or every two years? We haven’t seen promotions for the past six years in the various islands and we still have promotions outstanding in the public service that has been sitting there for almost 10 years,” she told The Tribune yesterday.

“We came to the table with PHA in reference to the industrial agreement. So, we’re signing off articles, but we’re asking them to come on, move a little quickly. It’s already been three years and we’re expecting that our industrial agreement will be signed no later than August, but here again, DPH has not come to the table as yet.”

She said this industrial agreement will put them on a five year course of increases - increases not seen since 2019.

Nurses possibly withdrawing their service would come at a time when the country is still in a pandemic and facing a nursing shortage. While cognisant of these issues, Ms Williams also highlighted the need of government to come to the table.

“We don’t want to put our members, our family because you have to be reminded we are nurses but our family are still coming to the hospital. So, we don’t want to put them in danger, but we want the government to come to the table and do what they promised the people that they will do,” she explained.

One nurse who voted in the poll yesterday said: “Of course I voted yes because I’m all for it and I feel like these are things that need to be done by the government.”

She explained her position when it came to working conditions.

“You have days where the AC isn’t working. You sweating in your uniform wet. You working short staffed in hazardous conditions and it’s like when you bring to their attention to say that you have these problems it’s if the problems aren’t being rectified.”

Another nurse, who had previously contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalised, said she was of the view that her colleagues would support a strike. She revealed that she had complications after recovering from COVID.

GOVERNMENT officials are investigating reports that emergency dome houses on Abaco are being used as brothels.

News of the use of the structures for prostitution came just 24 hours after The Tribune revealed that some families allocated domes in the wake of Hurricane Dorian have been sub-letting them to pocket the rent money.

Disaster Reconstruction Authority executive chairman Alex Storr said yesterday the authority will take action against those responsible for mismanaging and using dome structures, purchased by  government, for illicit purposes.

Yesterday, the DRA chairman confirmed the reports of the domes being used as brothels.  “I have had reports of illegal activity along that line and other things going on,” he said, “and so, we’re investigating all of that and whatever happens, we will make sure that we will take the appropriate actions based on the law.”

Asked how long illegal activity has been happening in the dome city, the DRA chairman replied: “(It) could be a matter of months, but let me say this, we have teams working. There’s a joint taskforce based with several agencies and once we go in, we’re going to do a proper assessment of what’s going on and bring a proper resolution to it.”

On Monday, Mr Storr told The Tribune some residents on the island were renting the domes for monetary gain.

He said he was alerted to the situation during his first visit to the island and subsequently ordered an investigation, which confirmed the reports.

The domes in question are being housed in Spring City, Abaco.

Some 34 structures were erected in the community to assist residents with temporary housing after Hurricane Dorian.

According to one area resident, many of the people living in the domes now are renting them out.

“In dome city, they have illegal people living there,” the Abaconian claimed. “Either they’re Jamaicans or of Spanish descent and some of them are prostitutes and then some of them are renting the domes to other people.

“That is a major problem there. A lot of them have their houses and they’re either renting the house and staying in the dome or they move back in their house and they’re renting the dome and the DRA is fully aware of it and, like they said, the time is winding down because they cost the government.”

This comes as the authority is seeking to find alternative housing for Abaco residents who are still living in the domes. 

One former tenant, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was told to hand the keys for his dome over to DRA officials at the end of the week, noting that repairs to his home had already ben completed.

However, The Tribune understands other dome dwellers who have yet to have their homes rebuilt or repaired were given until the end of August.

“Last week, someone from housing was on the island and everybody who had a home in Spring City that was not finished, they promised to give residents some help,” the Abaco resident added.

Yesterday, Mr Storr maintained that officials want to transition dome dwellers into permanent homes “as soon as possible.”

“The government, (based on) instructions from the Prime Minister, is trying to work on a programme to try and get those persons out of the domes as soon as possible, especially with the impending hurricane season,” he said yesterday.

 “The domes are not safe and even if they are evacuated in cases of a storm, their belongings inside those domes will not be safe and so we’re working to have a situation that won’t create extra hardship on the residents, but would put them in a better circumstance.” 

Hurricane Dorian hit Abaco on September 1, 2019 as a Category 5 hurricane before barreling toward Grand Bahama.

The storm left thousands of homes either destroyed or damaged and hundreds of residents displaced.

To assist with rebuilding efforts, the Minnis administration spent more than $6m on nearly 200 domes that were supposed to be used as temporary housing for Abaco and Grand Bahama residents after Hurricane Dorian.

However, DRA officials have raised concerns about the previous administration’s dome project, citing structural issues among other things 

“Every aspect of this dome project has had problems and that’s why the government is working as quickly as possible to bring a close to it,” said Mr Storr. 

According to the DRA chairman, the agency wants to find another purpose for the housing structures.

TRANSPORT and Housing Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis has denied claims that she assaulted a Royal Bahamas Police officer with her vehicle over the weekend during a Carnival event.

Her denial yesterday came after the Police Staff Association released a statement saying the officer involved retained an attorney as he had to seek medical attention for his injuries and was then discharged.

The PSA said it was awaiting the outcome of the investigation into the matter.

However, the minister yesterday said what has been claimed is not true.

“I gave my comment that everything that was said was untrue,” she said in an interview outside Parliament yesterday. “I stand by that and my grandmother always taught me that the last laugh is the best one and so it’ll be cleared up.”

Asked if she thought she was being targeted politically the minister replied: “I probably am. It will be cleared up.”

In a separate interview at Parliament, she also said: “I will wait for all of the other information to come forward but I stand by my statement that that is untrue. That is not my character.

“I had my three-year-old daughter with me on Saturday. So, I would never act out in her presence. Even if it was my character I would not. That is not my personality and I would not do that in the presence of my three-year-old daughter and so it’s untrue.”

While the PSA did not name the MP in its statement, which was posted on its Facebook page, it alleged that a female driver of a silver SUV struck a police officer with her vehicle after he informed her that he was instructed not to let any vehicles through.

PSA executive chairman Ricardo Walkes said: “This officer also said that she shouted at him ‘Do you know who I am!’ as she attempted to drive around the barricades and hit him another two time before he moved from her path being in fear for his safety and she sped away.

“He had to seek medical attention and was treated at the hospital for his injuries and later discharged.”

Mr Walkes said he thought the days of “Do you know who I am” were long gone.

He went on to note that no one was above the law.

“As an association we will not stand idly by while the rights of our members are infringed upon. The officer has retained an attorney as we await the outcome of the investigation into this matter,” he said.

The Free National Movement earlier this week called for answers over the situation.

Continuing his narrative of corrupt and fraudulent activities under the Minnis administration, Prime Minister Philip Davis on Monday tabled in the House of Assembly the report completed by ATI Company Limited into the National Food Distribution Task Force.

The report includes, verbatim, statements made by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) back in January, a month after the auditor was engaged.

The food program was a key initiative of the former government which fed thousands of vulnerable Bahamians during the COVID-19 pandemic using multiple NGOs already in operation.

Speaking in Parliament, in March, Davis used the program as an example of how he claimed former politicians sought to bilk the Bahamian people of public funds.

He said, “… It is becoming increasingly clear that some in the previous administration viewed governance as an extractive industry. They used public office to enrich themselves, their families, and their friends … they wanted theirs and they wanted it now.”

Davis said, “The political leadership directly contributed to this by taking steps to ensure that normal safeguards were not applied.”

He then advised that a review of the food program, which operated for more than 70 weeks at a price tag of $54 million, uncovered some “startling results”.

In tabling the ATI report on Monday, Davis again used the word “startling”, saying a read of the report was just that — startling.

ATI, which, according to its LinkedIn profile, was founded in 2021, was engaged by the office of the financial secretary of the Ministry of Finance to conduct an “agreed-upon procedures” report. Its president and principal, Kershala Albury, CPA, has been in that role since September 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The company was engaged by the Davis administration in December 2021.

ATI’s scope of work included, among other things: “Review of the task force’s mandate and an assessment of compliance with the directives included herein.”

Financial Secretary Simon Wilson told a Nassau Guardian reporter yesterday that the government was intentional about selecting a small firm to conduct the food program review.

“What we did is we engaged a number of different auditors — large and small firms,” he explained.

“We assigned them things of interest. We thought that this was something that was going to be very minor. The more controversial stuff, we assigned to much larger firms. That’s what happened. We did not [expect it to blow up].”

It is too bad that the prime minister and spokespersons at OPM clouded the food program issue by speaking to matters being uncovered before allowing the auditor to complete her review.

Within a month of the auditor being engaged, OPM Communications Director Latrae Rahming was already making a statement to the media, which turned out to be identical language in the report eventually tabled in Parliament on Monday.

At the time of Rahming’s statement to the media, the auditor, according to the timelines contained in her report, had not yet received data from the task force chairperson, Susan Larson, and various NGOs, and still had much work to do.

In making his statement in January, Rahming said the government had received “preliminary accounts” into the food program’s operations.

Deficiencies

In her report, the auditor concluded there were procedural deficiencies in how the food program ran and said two NGOs that were involved in the program either did not submit requested data, at the date of the report, or did not submit in a timely fashion.

Specifically, the auditor said Lend a Hand Bahamas, which received $11.5 million for its feeding program, under the national effort, “did not submit requested data as at the date of this report”.

The auditor said, “As at the date of this report, Lend a Hand has provided a PDF document labeled ‘weekly accounting dashboard’, containing over 10 blank pages and data that did not meet the requirements of the requested data and documentation.”

Regarding the NGO IDEA Relief, whose fund disbursement totaled $4.4 million, the auditor said, “ATI was not provided with timely data or data that met best practices as at the date of this report.

“In view of reporting timelines, considerations extended from the initiation of the engagement, and the inadequate data provided by IDEA Relief, ATI was unable to complete sufficient and appropriate procedures consistent with our agreed-upon procedures,” the auditor stated.

Given that the auditor stated that she did not receive information from these two entities, Prime Minister Davis concluded that the funds disbursed to them simply “vanished”.

“Madam Speaker, $10 million of the Bahamian people’s money has simply vanished,” Davis declared in the House of Assembly on Monday.

He received the screaming headline he no doubt wanted.

In the minds of many Bahamians, hearing that $10 million vanished was understandably worrying.

Interestingly, a read of the 138-page ATI report does not show the auditor reaching such a conclusion.

While the prime minister encouraged Bahamians to “read the audit report for themselves,” he no doubt knows that there are many Bahamians who will not sit and read the lengthy, convoluted document, so, he appears to be getting some political mileage off his continuing Free National Movement (FNM) corruption narrative, even if there has not, up to this point, been any finding of fraud or corruption in relation to the food program.

Davis indicated that this is not the end of this matter.

He said, “We do not prejudge the circumstances we have uncovered, to say definitively whether such large sums of public money have been subjected to jaw-dropping incompetence, or jaw-breaking conspiracy. But we will find out.”

While we do believe the prime minister has made an illogical leap in determining that $10 million in public funds simply disappeared, we do not seek to ignore the conclusions of deficiencies drawn by the auditor.

As we wrote in our editorial in this newspaper yesterday, as minister of finance, Davis has a fiduciary responsibility to account to the people how money authorized by his ministry was spent.

But the taint of scandal, with which members of the Davis administration have attempted to color the food program, does not appear to be borne out by the report tabled.

We also stated in our editorial that while these findings do not connect the dots of an overall picture of conspiracy to misuse government funds, they are instructive as to the need for better oversight of public money even when there is an emergency at hand.

The auditor observed that there were administrative deficiencies and procedural deficiencies that made it impossible to reconcile the expenditure of public funds.

In some instances, the auditor said, certain NGOs had “erroneously classified” funds.

ATI said, for example, that approximately $588,000 was “erroneously classified” by Hands For Hunger.

The prime minister did not indicate what the next steps are as they relate to uncovering how funds allocated to the food program were used.