NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Acting Prime Minister Chester Cooper yesterday asserted that the Davis administration is seeking to ‘right the wrong’ caused by what he described as the “horrendously bad” Disaster Reconstruction Authority Bill.
Cooper slammed the Minnis administration’s response to Hurricane Dorian while making his contribution to the debate on the Disaster Risk Management Authority Bill in the House of Assembly.
He said that “not enough has happened fast enough” in Abaco and Grand Bahama in the aftermath of Dorian.
“The Bill in and of itself will not expedite relief and restoration,” Cooper said.
“That requires the will and commitment to act. This administration has the will and the wherewithal to continue the relief and restoration efforts that we have already started.”
Cooper doubled down on his assertion that the Disaster Reconstruction Authority Act passed by the Minnis administration in November 2019 was “possibly the worst piece of legislation I had ever seen”.
“I stand by that today,” Cooper said.
“It was a nonsensical approach that created more bureaucracy that I suspected would lead to mismanagement and confusion and that is exactly what it did. I will say that I take no pleasure in being right.
He continued: “The fact of the matter is it was a horrendously bad bill that, though poorly constructed, the government itself did not follow. It wreaked of incompetence and ineptitude like much of what they did.”
Cooper asserted that the people of Abaco and Grand Bahama were “failed beyond measure” by the Minnis administration.
He noted that the Disaster Risk Management Authority Bill seeks to establish a disaster risk management policy.
“This bill seeks to set out what should be entailed in such a policy, including a national disaster risk management plan, a national disaster emergency plan, disaster risk management plans for public bodies, local government disaster risk management plans, local government disaster emergency plans and other critical components that will help us to actually mitigate survive, recover and rebuild after any disaster,” said Cooper.
