NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Minnis administration’s decision to appoint sitting parliamentarians to head public utility companies went against policy previously set by the Free National Movement, according to Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who said the move resulted in “all kinda egg over our face”.
Ingraham addressed the party in an Evening of Reflection under the topic “Government In The Sunshine” on the occasion of its 30th Anniversary of the 1992 Victory at the party headquarters on Friday.
“We had experienced all of the abuse that had taken place at Batelco, BEC, and the water corporation and we announced that upon winning the government, we the FNM, would not appoint any FNM MP to be the chairman of any of those boards,” he said.
“We knew why we did that, patronage and politics were too strong for individual MPs to withstand, and we made sure that the person we made chairman of those boards were not members of parliament.”
During a question and answer period, Ingraham continued: “We determined for good reason that we would not make MPs chairman of public utility companies, yet still we went and made Adrian Gibson executive chairman of WSC, and now we got all kinda egg over our face. All we had to do was say I wonder why they did that, talk to somebody, ain’t had to talk to me, could have talked to Tommy (Turnquest)…anybody, say why did ya’ll do that?
He added: “My one regret was that when the FNM won in 2017, that I didn’t have an opportunity to speak to all those new ministers who had been appointed for the first time, who had never been in government before, that I had not been invited to speak. I think I could have helped them.”
The FNM’s Long Island MP Adrian Gibson is facing charges of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, receiving, and money laundering connected to an alleged scheme during his tenure as the former Water & Sewerage Corporation chairman.
He was charged in a Magistrate’s Court on June 13.
