PLP slams PM’s national address

PLP slams PM’s national address
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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The Opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) did not waste any time to criticize the comments delivered by Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis in his national address to the nation on Monday night.

A statement released shortly after 10:00p.m. from PLP Chairman, Fred Mitchell, said

if the government had addressed the national issues facing the country since coming to office in May 2017, rather than ‘digging around in the garbage bin for evidence of corruption that does not exist,’ much of the misery, pain and suffering that exists today could have been avoided.

Mitchell said given the poor revenue performance of the government, because of a loss of confidence by both investors and consumers, the government will not be able to pay for earmarked infrastructure developments and will have to rely on private interests to succeed in delivering on its promises.

“It then stands to reason that since the vast majority of Bahamians cannot fund these projects, the government will therefore use FNM elites and financial donors to finance much of these public works projects,” the PLP chairman surmised.

He also claimed that foreigners and ‘wealthy FNM elites and donors’ stand to reap the massive financial windfall in compound interest payments for decades to come, at the expense of small and medium sized contractors.

The party’s chairman also believes that state wealth will be transferred and concentrated into the hands of a few FNM supporters, which he referred to as a tragedy.

He also noted that there is no plan to put money on the ground and bring relief to Grand Bahama, as the sale of the Grand Lucayan Resort is nowhere near completion, thus ‘the suffering, misery, mass exodus and social dislocation on that island will continue’.

“We say again that the national budget is to be used for the upliftment and empowerment of the masses,” Mitchell said.

“The philosophy of the FNM ostensibly is to transfer and concentrate state wealth, most of its tax dollars paid by Bahamians who can barely make ends meet, into the hands of a few already wealthy donor families.

“What a pity,” the PLP’s statement concluded.