Corruption is a word politicians love to toss about, fully cognizant of the fact that there’s nothing that angers the public more than hearing that its government is stealing its money or fixing up its cronies and special interests to the detriment of taxpayers.
In the months before the last general election, corruption claims resonated.
Dr. Hubert Minnis and his Free National Movement (FNM) adopted these claims as the central theme of their campaign, playing on the emotions of a population burdened by taxes, a high cost of living and stagnant salaries, and increasingly sickened by the unaccountable and shameless actions of those in government.
“Where the VAT money gone?” reverberated across the political landscape.
By the time then-Prime Minister Perry Christie finally gave a full reporting in Parliament on March 29, 2017 on how his administration had used the $1.14 billion in value-added tax (VAT) revenue collected in 2015 and 2016, it was already too late to reverse deeply ingrained perceptions a great many Bahamians had that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration was corrupt and that some in government had literally lined their pockets to the tune of millions of dollars.
The result of those perceptions was a blowout at the polls.
The PLP suffered its greatest loss since the party was founded in 1953, winning just four seats in the House of Assembly.
Even Christie was unceremoniously voted out as an MP. For the battered political titan, the once powerful and untouchable leader, it was a humiliating outcome.
No one we knew felt sorry for him.
The PLP’s election post mortem – conducted by Jamaican social and economic development practitioner Maureen Webber at the behest of the party’s leadership – showed that in addition to Christie fatigue, Christie’s failure to address “wrongdoing” of Cabinet ministers and persistent corruption perceptions were the main reasons for the party’s defeat.
With another election nearing, both the FNM and the PLP are planting seeds of doubt and concern in the minds of voters, but failing to lay out any clear evidence to prove their corruption claims.
Over the many years of producing this column, we have touted the value of accountable and transparent governance, though it has been tremendously challenging to see meaningful progress on those fronts.
More transparent governance is an important method of combatting corruption. But a lack of transparency alone is not evidence of the existence of corruption.
In politics, however, perceptions are so powerful they can lead to the defeat of entire administrations as we saw in 2017.
Unproven claims
As Minnis and the FNM did while in opposition, former Deputy Prime Minister
Philip Brave Davis, who easily secured the PLP’s leadership when Christie was defeated, is now accusing the current government of corrupt dealings.
Speaking last week of the contract the Ministry of Tourism has entered with Kanoo, an electronic payment provider, to collect revenue for health travel visas to facilitate the reopening of The Bahamas amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the PLP leader made a series of damning claims.
In response, the Ministry of Tourism, in a press release, said it is “wholly untrue” to say that Kanoo was selected because of some political affiliation between the governing party and its shareholders.
The ministry also rejected as “completely erroneous” Davis’ assertion that Kanoo is holding and controlling the funds earned from the health travel visa.
Davis and the PLP are no doubt hopeful that what will stick are their corruption claims and not the ministry’s or the government’s explanations.
We have several observations here.
Firstly, on the matter of transparency, the government leaves itself wide open to suffer political damage – and more importantly, it insults and does a disservice to taxpayers – when it fails to disclose information the public has a legitimate right to access.
In this instance, it failed to be completely transparent on the arrangement it entered into with Kanoo by hiding behind the stated need to move swiftly to enter this kind of contract without going to tender.
The Minnis administration has made some progress on legislation intended to create more transparent and accountable governance, but the culture of secrecy prevails, and the delayed enactment of the Public Procurement Act means a further delay in transparency.
The government’s failure to be proactive in bringing to Parliament any report on the contracts it has entered during the pandemic might have allowed the corruption perception to sneak in.
The prime minister might have legal protection in failing to be transparent on the procurement issue, but this prolonged lack of transparency in procurement belies his government’s oft stated claim that it is a government of transparency and accountability.
Given that many in the electorate have long lost their taste for the Minnis administration, this could further stain its brand.
The Emergency Powers Regulations empower the competent authority (Prime Minister Minnis) to waive procurement rules. If he does so, then the obligation of the minister of finance (Minnis) to report on all such procurement activities related to public health and safety to Parliament within six weeks after the expiration of any proclamation of emergency would arise.
The attorney general has argued that the fact that the competent authority has never issued any order to waive any procurement rules means that the obligation to disclose does not arise.
But as our colleague, Sharon Turner, observed in Perspective in this publication on Monday: The AG’s argument entirely misses the point that a transparent and accountable government will make public for the Bahamian people what they have a right to know, whether or not the law compels it to do so.
Because the government was not proactive in explaining its arrangement with Kanoo for the health travel visa, it was forced to be reactive once again. Further, it has still not made public its contract with the company.
The House of Assembly has gone on a long summer break until September 22, so don’t look for anything to be tabled anytime soon.
The messenger
The other observation we make on this matter is that while there is a pressing need for transparency on procurement during the pandemic, and other decisions the government has made on our behalf, calls for transparency ought not be conflated with outright claims of corruption, as Davis so irresponsibly did.
We believe his claims were more about winning political advantage than any genuine concern for the Bahamian people or the protection of our financial resources.
That any principal of Kanoo might be a close ally of the prime minister or closely connected with the governing party is not enough to prove any corrupt act or intent.
The fake outrage on the part of the official opposition as its members allege wrongdoing also reveals a degree of hypocrisy.
Davis has sought to reform the PLP and shore up its image, but it really is hard to take the messenger seriously in his alarm over unproven wrongdoing and abuse of office on the part of the Minnis administration.
Davis as the number two man in the former administration was quiet as a church mouse in the face of questionable conduct or downright abuse on the part of his colleagues.
Who could forget when we approached the then Deputy Prime Minister Davis on April 21, 2017, one day after The Tribune revealed shocking evidence that showed the then education minister, Jerome Fitzgerald, had sought millions of dollars in contracts for his family business from Sarkis Izmirlian, at the time developer of the multi-billion-dollar Baha Mar project?
Did Davis condemn the actions of his colleague? Did he at least express regret about Fitzgerald’s bad judgment? Did he indicate that this was a matter being closely examined by the leadership of government?
No. He stood firmly by Fitzgerald, shamelessly giving him an endorsement as the election neared.
“He’s our candidate for Marathon and we expect him to win his seat,” Davis told reporters, demonstrating a classic PLP action of standing by their man no matter what.
Davis is now concerned about what he views as the FNM fixing up cronies, but claimed in 2017 that he had no knowledge that the procurement department of Bahamas Power and Light (which he had had ministerial responsibility for) had given a contract to Errington “Minky” Isaacs (the PLP chairman emeritus) for remediation work after Isaacs submitted a bid for the contract.
Davis’ denial came after Prime Minister Minnis revealed in the House of Assembly that the commencement date of the $2 million contract was March 27, 2013, while the expiration date for the contract was March 27, 2017.
Minnis said from all he knows about Isaacs, “he knows nothing of cleaning oil”.
The PLP administration did not table the Isaacs contract.
The FNM administration has not tabled the Kanoo contract.
The point here is not to be dismissive of any legitimate concerns Davis as leader of the official opposition now raises about the expenditure of the Bahamian people’s monies and the award of contracts, but Bahamians should think hard about who they would be electing and whether they really would be getting better, and more trustworthy leadership should they vote PLP.
This is not an endorsement of Minnis either, but intended to highlight the very difficult spot we find ourselves in in determining who should manage our affairs moving forward.
None currently vying for leadership can be fully believed.
It’s why so many Bahamians are so frustrated with, and even disgusted by, our options for national political leadership.
We have seen politicians use causes, and people, for their own advancement without any real conviction.
Both sides are guilty of this.
Think of how Minnis, when in opposition, tried to make himself a hero in speaking out for Cabbage Beach vendors in 2016 and in calling for a fence that had been put up by private property owners blocking the vendors’ access to be taken down.
Two weeks ago, another fence was put up by the property owners. Outraged vendors broke through the fence. This time, without the support of Minnis, the now prime minister, who has had nothing to say on the matter, not an expression of regret or sympathy, or an assurance that he was working to resolve their issues.
That’s likely because there is no political mileage for him to gain as there was in 2016.
Delays
The Minnis administration has so far failed to prove corruption against the former administration, though it benefited greatly, as indicated, from the narrative that it set and continues to push about the PLP.
The corruption case against two former PLP parliamentarians – Frank Smith and Shane Gibson – both failed, and the case against former Cabinet Minister Kenred Dorsett has still not been heard nearly four years after Dorsett was charged.
In October 2017, the Minnis administration introduced the Integrity Commission Bill to the House to deal strongly with corruption in public life, but no debate ever took place.
The proposed groundbreaking legislation comprehensively detailed acts of corruption, including the behavior of public officials with respect to the award of contracts and soliciting or accepting any personal benefit or providing an advantage for another person by doing an act or omitting to do an act in the performance of his or her functions as a public official.
The government did finally push through and had passed the Public Procurement Act to provide for transparency in the award of government contracts, but has delayed its implementation to September.
Its international consultant on public procurement observed in a report in January 2021, that the resistance to public procurement reform “from top-level political positions and senior-level management officials in government as well as from members of Parliament” had “obstructed” progress regarding the new public procurement legislation development and implementation of new procurement tools.
The consultant also reported that while the Cabinet had mandated all public entities to register and begin utilization of the government’s electronic procurement portal to post and receive bids by May 21, 2020, only 30 registered entities – of which there were four ministries, 11 departments and 15 government corporations and statutory agencies – out of an estimated total number of 80 public bodies had been registered up to December 2020.
September is only a couple months away, but it is a long time to go without having to adhere to strict legal requirements regarding the award of government contracts. A whole lot of contracts could be awarded within that period without a high degree of scrutiny and openness.
And while progress has been made in the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), an information commissioner and deputy commissioner named and an office established, the attorney general said in May it would take three to six months for the full implementation and roll out of the act.
This means that with another election season upon us, we are still a ways off from the full legislative force needed to strengthen transparency and accountability in government.
The public in the interim should continue to demand a shift in the government culture that encourages secret government.
And it should be weary of politicians who beat the corruption drum for political advancement.
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