After assuming office in 2017 on a powerful wave that swept the Christie-led Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) from office and banished most of those in the party to the political wilderness, the Free National Movement (FNM) administration used the ensuing budget debate to support its PLP corruption narrative and further demonize the former administration.

It was an obvious attempt to temper the expectations of the electorate by explaining that it was due to corruption that the cupboard was bare.

As previous administrations had done upon coming to power, we were told things are even worse than we thought. That meant the pie-in-the sky pledges made to sway voters were not likely to be met.

We were told that the former administration had left hundreds of millions of dollars in unmet commitments, and that through wheeling and dealing, it had raided the treasury and further burdened Bahamian taxpayers and generations of Bahamians yet unborn.

In chilling contributions to the 2017/2018 budget debate that laid the foundation for a plan announced a year later to raise value-added tax, minister after minister spoke of PLP corruption, conflicts of interest, misdeeds and mismanagement.

“The Bahamian people were sensible enough to vote them out, and when their deeds are revealed, the Bahamian people will keep them out,” vowed Desmond Bannister, minister of public works.

In dramatic fashion, Bannister declared that PLP ministers were guilty of misfeasance.

“Mr. Speaker, they are guilty and by their acts they have caused untold damage,” he said.

“… The attorney general will have to determine whether they will have to pay; and they should not expect the government to waste the people’s money to represent them in court as they did when they deliberately and maliciously disclosed the private information of others to the public.”

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian