Former Minister of State for the Environment Phenton Neymour yesterday criticized the government for failing to reveal what caused a delay in the release of a Rubis gasoline leak report completed in 2014 by Black and Veatch.

In May 2015, retired Justice Joseph Strachan was appointed by the government to lead an independent review to determine why the report was delayed.

Neymour said it's unacceptable that there are still no answers a year later.

"This is totally out of the ordinary for it to be taking this long," he said. "The review should have been completed in a timely manner. The original report from Black and Veatch was some nine to 10 months late and so the government is negligent in that regard. The bottom line is the Bahamian people know they don't meet timelines."

The government held onto the Black and Veatch report for more than a year before making it public. It finally did so after Marathon residents expressed outrage at a town meeting on the matter.

The government came under heavy fire after it was revealed the report had been kept from the public for so long. That report warned that residents who live and work in the area where the leak occurred could potentially be exposed to health risks.

Amid the public furor over the matter, the attorney general announced the independent body would report on the reasons the report was delayed and recommend how to handle such matters in the future.

Last week, environmental attorney Romauld Ferreira called the review a public relations exercise.
Neymour agreed.

"[The review] was an attempt to throw the hounds off the scent at that time," he said.

Neymour said he is not surprised by the silence. He said it highlights the Christie administration's lack of transparency.

"If one looks simply at the reporting to the government and the reporting to people and their interaction with the general public, one would see the government failed the people and does not deserve to be in office," he said.

Outside of Cabinet earlier this month, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson refused to speak about the independent review.

Jasmin Brown, Guardian Staff Reporter

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