NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Opposition Leader Michael Pintard has accused the Davis administration of deliberately keeping government spending “in the dark,” asserting that more than $400 million in sole-source and direct-award contracts have been issued over the past three years without adequate public disclosure.
In a statement titled Pintard argued that the government is intentionally stalling implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to avoid scrutiny of its contracting practices.
“Eight years after FOIA was passed, the Attorney General is still telling the country, “We’re right where we were.” That is the closest this government has come to admitting the truth,” Pintard stated. Pintard asserted that the Davis administration has no intention of giving the Bahamian people real access to information, “because transparency threatens the way they govern.”
Pintard added that the Prime Minister’s comment that FOIA cannot be a priority because “the Bahamian people are still suffering” is both an acknowledgment of national hardship and an indictment of the government’s lack of openness. “If people are struggling, why is this government fighting so hard to keep its spending in the dark?” he asked, saying the administration “must stall the implementation of Freedom of Information because it is impossible for him to explain why.”
The Opposition Leader highlighted what he described as the most troubling example of opaque spending: more than $40 million advanced to a shell company associated with the Carmichael Village Development Project. Pintard said: “I have written the Prime Minister twice to get answers, and I have raised the matter in Parliament, yet the government has refused to provide a full accounting of where that money went.” He added the initiative “now appears to be 100 percent overspent, and less than half of the promised homes have been constructed.”
“This is precisely the type of transaction FOIA was designed to bring into the light,” he said.
Pintard rejected the Prime Minister’s characterization of FOIA as “esoteric,” calling the remark “both disingenuous and dangerous.” He said: “FOIA is not an abstract theory. It is the mechanism that protects our democracy from the complacency and carelessness that secrecy breeds. When governments stop expecting the public to ask questions, they also stop expecting themselves to provide answers.”
He added: “Prime Minister Davis and his PLP cohorts believe that the business of the Bahamian people is none of the people’s business. That way of thinking must come to an end.”
Pintard pledged that a future FNM administration would move immediately to activate all elements of the legislation: “A Pintard-led administration will begin full implementation of the FOIA immediately upon taking office, beginning with the proactive publication of existing agreements, contracts, reports, etc. We will set a robust and prompt timeline to ensure that all elements of FOIA are in place in every government agency as soon as the processes…”
