NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Former Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald has reportedly been tapped to be the senior policy advisor and head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU).
The appointment was “haphazardly” announced on the PMDU’s social media page around 3pm on Tuesday but was later deleted.
Viana Gardiner previously headed the PMDU under former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.
Clint Watson, newly appointed press secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), told Eyewitness News on Tuesday that the post was removed because there has been no official announcement from the OPM.
Watson said: “We are trying to access the various departments and see the needs of the department and that’s what he’s assisting doing.
“The prime minister has made no announcement on positions yet.”
Fitzgerald had several controversial scandals throughout his 2012-2017 term in public life and up until his defeat at the 2017 polls.
In 2015, it was revealed that the government took more than a year to publicize a 2014 Black & Veatch report on a gas leak from the Rubis service station on Robinson Road that warned of possible health risks to people living and working in the area.
While the report was completed in February 2014, it was only made public on April 17, 2015, after residents expressed concern and outrage at a town meeting.
At the time, Fitzgerald, then the Marathon MP, said he kept silent because he would have been “fired on the spot” if he discussed Cabinet procedures.
Another scandal broke in March 2016 when the minister read and tabled in Parliament an email thread from Save the Bays members that referenced a murder-for-hire plot involving Canadian fashion tycoon Peter Nygard and members of Save the Bays.
At the end of his five-year tenure, on Nomination Day 2017, it was revealed in a series of emails that Fitzgerald attempted to lobby then-Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian for brokerage, trucking and limousine contracts.
In the aftermath of the party’s defeat, Fitzgerald backed away from frontline politics but remained active in the party.
Eyewitness News understands he also headed the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) “war room” during the 2021 General Election.
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