Government’s pre-election economic update still not in line with the law, says Cooper

Shadow minister for finance and the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) Deputy Leader Chester Cooper charged in a statement Monday that the government’s Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update Report remains in breach of the law as it contains no information on contracts government entered into since the passage of the 2021/2022 annual budget.

Cooper maintained in his statement that the report cannot be accurate without considering outstanding contracts, especially given that contracts distributed by the governing PLP just before the 2017 general election were a huge impetus for the Free National Movement government’s development of the law.

“This was the precise reason this provision in the law was created as was explained when it was tabled and debated in Parliament,” Cooper said.

“This report is in breach of the law as it contains no information on contracts entered into by the government since the passage of the annual budget. You cannot accurately report arrears without considering outstanding contracts.”

This paper attempted to find out why those contracts were not included in the report, but calls to Minister of State for Finance Kwasi Thompson were not returned up to press time yesterday.

Cooper said in his statement that the government’s total outstanding arrears amounting to $109 million as of August 25 are “highly questionable”.

“It is not within the realm of probability that the Ministry of Works and Department of Works have no outstanding payments to vendors,” he said.

“What about payments owed to contractors doing major work at C.W. Sawyer and S.C. McPherson for the Ministry of Education? What about pending contracts for other school repairs?

“Are we also to believe that only the Department of Corrections has employees owed funds due to reinstatement? What about the outstanding transfers to public corporations? Does the Water and Sewerage Corporation not owe Aqua Design half a million dollars?

“Are increments still not owed to public servants after payments having been frozen for two years? Has the government rescheduled any principal payments? There is no mention of this in the report.”

He also asked that government explain the details surrounding the arrangement with Goldman Sachs to act as book-runners as the government prepares to borrow more foreign currency.

“We are curious about the full terms of this arrangement, as well as the loan agreements with the IMF and World Bank as previously requested,” said Cooper.

“While there are very serious questions arising from the document, we thank the government for this report and are happy we were able to assist in promoting its delivery to the taxpayer.

“Whilst we have the Minister of Finance’s attention, we urge them to comply with the law as it relates to the report on pandemic spending, the release of beneficial ownership information as is required under the IMF facility, the Fiscal Responsibility Council’s report.

“We still await the report on Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Dorian donations and the report on the missing Oban files.”

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/governments-pre-election-economic-update-still-not-in-line-with-the-law-says-cooper/