PLP Doesn't Seem To Understand Conflict of Interest

Well, as the song goes, the PLP boys are back in town, and this time, it seems, they are not even trying to hide their wicked ways.

Everyone remembers how, in Opposition, the PLP spoke out loudly against Gerado Capo, the developer of the proposed Bimini Bay project.

Well, today as the government the PLP's attitude appears to have changed dramatically. The other day a group of Cabinet Ministers, and the Ambassador for the Environment, visited Bimini supposedly to look at a proposed development.

Those in the group included Ministers Obie Wilchcombe, Bradley Roberts, Glenys Hanna-Martin, Alfred Grey, and Allyson Maynard-Gibson. Also along was Mount Moriah MP Koed Smith.

It was certainly proper for the group to get a first-hand view of such a proposed project. What was totally improper, however, was that they allowed the developer to foot the cost of the trip – they accepted a sizable favour (chartered aircraft, bus and ferry costs) from a developer seeking a favourable decision by the PLP Government.

They might well have got away with that piece of shameless conflict which threw Perry Christie's Code of Ethics out the window except that an observant Kenneth Russell, FNM MP for High Rock, was also in Bimini at the same time.

Mr. Russell told Parliament "When I landed in Bimini and got on the bus, which drove down to the ferry, a gentleman from BIS in Freeport asked if I was with the government's delegation. 'Just sign right here and everything is paid for,' he said.

"I can't understand why a group of Ministers and the Ambassador for the Environment going to Bimini on Government business would allow the developer to pay for them," Mr. Russell told Parliament.

"The Residents of Bimini always had problems with the Bimini Bay project, and they expected the new help and hope government to drastically reduce or cancel the project," he went on, "but these same Ministers who were against it are in bed with the developer.

"The concerns the Biminites demonstrated against several weeks ago, that is, the wall and gate, the water supply quality, the employment situation, the overall size of the project, and the environmental degradation associated with the project were brought up in this House before, and the Government showed no concern."

With that exposure of a clear case of the PLP government's accepting favours from an investor seeking government's okay on a project, we wonder what other favours Cabinet Ministers are accepting here and there when honest and observant folk like Kenneth Russell are not around.

One thing is certain – what happened at Bimini could never happen on the watch of a truly transparent FNM Government.

That is a vital difference the people will want to keep in mind when next they go to the polls.

COME CLEAN WITH BAHAMIANS ON BAHAMASAIR

The PLP government has yet to come clean with the Bahamian people on some vexing matters pertaining to Bahamasair, particularly the issue of the proposed privatisation of the national carrier.

The FNM a few weeks ago drew attention to Bahamasair's new levy of a $20 penalty on passengers who for one reason or another find it necessary to change their reserved travel time with the airline.

The FNM pointed out that the airline could not in good conscience expect to better its financial condition by over-taxing poor Bahamians who could hardly afford the price of an airline ticket in the first place.

Then recently Bahamasair tightened the screws even more by almost a blanket increase in fares to the Family Islands.

In some cases, apparently, Bahamasair was forced to stick to the original cost of the ticket when certain outspoken Family Island Members of Parliament came down hard on the Minister.

Yet it should not take political intervention or interference to force the Government to do right by the people – especially poor Bahamians still searching aimlessly and fruitlessly for the PLP's promised help and hope.

Importantly, however, the PLP government has a duty to come completely clean on the issue of the privatisation of Bahamasair.

The Government, which must already subsidise the airline to a hefty extent, contracted an American firm to advise on and supposedly help prepare Bahamasair for privatisation.

That advice and assistance is costing the Bahamian taxpayer one million dollars ($1,000,000), and to date neither the airline nor the government has advised the people on what progress has been made.

In the Government's 2005/2006 budget, $10 million has been set aside as a subsidy for Bahamasair. That is one million more than Bahamasair got in the previously fiscal term, and it can only be assumed that the extra one million is to pay off McKinsey & Co. to develop a new business plan for the airline.

Last week the airline in a press release invited local firms, institutions, and presumably individuals interested in a partnership in the airline to submit details of that interest by a certain date.

Well, it certainly should not have cost the Bahamian taxpayer one million dollars for a consultancy firm only to then ask for local tenders, unless there is something else afoot here.

Is it possible that here, again, the boys are back? Is it possible that in the case of Bahamasair a group of the PLP money boys have a plan to get into the airline business with the government?

In such a case, of course, it could well turn out that a few serious cases of conflict of interest could arise, and we could well be back in the syndrome of the old PLP government days when it was sometimes difficult to tell where the government ended and the private sector, allied closely with the government, began.

Over the years the national carrier has already experienced far too many episodes of ugliness, political intrigue, and vexing mismanagement for the airline today to be plunged back into that era of shame and scandal.

The time has come for the government to lay out, clean and truthfully and comprehensively, all the relevant facts concerning Bahamasair.

In so doing, the airline and the Minister should bear in mind that should they not come with the truth, then that task of informing the people will well fall to the Free National Movement.

WITHOUT THE BAHAMAS, NO CSME

It has been months now that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been flogging the CSME horse around the Islands of The Bahamas. Indeed last week he noted that he had delivered more than 20 addresses on the issue.

Yet in all those early speeches and remarks on the CSME, for some reason it was only late in the game – and only after others began pointing it up – that Fred Mitchell was forced to admit that if The Bahamas does not sign the revised Treaty of Chauguramas creating the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, then the CSME cannot come into effect.

That revised treaty states that the CSME cannot come into effect unless all 14 Caribbean states sign on. To date the only two states which have not signed on are The Bahamas and Montserrat.

No new treaty and the CSME will not be born, but The Bahamas remains a member of CARICOM.

This is another case in which the PLP government has refused to come clean with the Bahamian people on all aspects of the issue, not secretly agreeing this and agreeing that, and conveniently neglecting to inform the Bahamian people of vital points.

Were it not for intellectual and informed critiques and analyses by such as former FNM Economic Development Minister Zhivargo Laing, attorney Brian Moree, former FNM Finance Minister Sir William Allen, former Central Bank Governor Julian Francis, and a host of others interested in driving home the truth to the people, the Foreign Affairs Minister and the PLP government would have by now taken The Bahamas straight into what could be hell.

FREEDOM FIGHTER DIES

The Free National Movement is greatly saddened by the death of its Sergeant-at-Arms, Alphonso "Fonz" Rolle.

Fonz, as he was affectionately called, who was the Party's Sergeant-at-Arms from 1982 until his death, died on Sunday morning, 12 June 2005. He was born at Mangrove Cay, Andros on 14th February 1956. A founding member of the Party, Fonz followed Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield and the Dissident Eight when they left the PLP, and remained steadfast with the FNM throughout. Mr. Rolle was a stalwart of the highest order, and a source of work, energy and inspiration in the FNM for more than 30 years.

Tommy Turnquest, Leader of the Party, said that "the Free National Movement offers Mr. Rolle's family our deepest sympathies at the passing of this noble and dedicated officer. In due course, our Party will establish a fitting public tribute to his memory, and to his contribution to the building of our winning political mixture."