By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reportre

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE competency of Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has been called into question by Hubert Chipman, Opposition Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, over the decision to lease extra accommodations in Washington, DC, for a consulate general’s office.

Mr Chipman made the accusation in response to a statement issued by Mr Mitchell that the Bahamas government, despite these harsh economic times, planned to open a separate consul general’s office in Washington, in addition to the Embassy.

Responding to Mr Mitchell’s statement made last week on the matter, Shadow Minister Hubert Chipman told The Tribune yesterday that Mr Mitchell “has again demonstrated to the Bahamian people that his arrogance is matched only by his incompetence as Minister of Foreign Affairs”.

“As Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs, I am compelled to respond to a press release issued on March 20, 2014, by Mr Mitchell,” the St Anne’s MP said.

“I found the release to be deceitful misinformation calculated to cover up and divert attention from the ill-advised and wasteful decision to use scarce financial resources to lease accommodations for a Consulate General in Washington, DC. This is a classic example of bad, unnecessary spending at a time when the focus should be on fiscal prudence,” Mr Chipman said.

“This government’s continued waste of money is particularly offensive because it comes at a time when they are trying to persuade Bahamians that it is necessary to impose even more taxes on their backs.”

Last Thursday, in noting that there were thousands of Bahamians living in the 23 states serviced by the Bahamas’ foreign service office stationed in Washington, DC, Mr Mitchell defended his decision explaining that the government’s move was simply carrying out the role “of the Foreign Affairs Ministry”.

“That’s the policy of the government and I stand by it,” he said.

“But beyond that,” the minister said, “under United States law, Embassies and Consulates must occupy separate physical spaces and this is the legal reasoning behind the separation of offices in Washington, DC. Hubert Chipman should know this or he should have done his due diligence before opening his mouth and sounding ignorant like someone out of his depth.

“Also, if Hubert Chipman has an alternative and viable policy – like providing and staffing adequate facilities to better address the concerns of Bahamians living abroad at no additional cost to the government – then I’m all ears. But true to form, as night follows day, the FNM who has no position of value on anything, no viable alternative, is at it again opposing for opposing sake and complaining. They somehow manage to agree, but disagree at the same time on the same issue,” the minister added.

Mr Mitchell claimed that the opposition supported this policy by allocating monies in the budget for the establishment of this foreign mission.

He added that despite the statements made by the FNM opposition, they were not in a position to cast judgment on the government after “the FNM government managed to waste huge sums of public money on unnecessary repairs to an official residence in Atlanta and so neglected the official residence in London that it cost the current government an exorbitant amount of money in repairs to make the High Commissioner’s residence liveable”.

“This government,” Mr Mitchell maintained, “is providing much better services to Bahamians living abroad and is doing a much better job than the FNM at promoting Bahamian culture, trade and business opportunities and communicating the same to all – both at home and abroad.”

In response, Mr Chipman claims that the minister’s comments were made to deliberately attempts to mislead the Bahamian people by stating that United States law prohibits the co-location of consulates in an embassy and said this was “typical” for a politician “who believes he is smarter than everyone else”.

“Is he suggesting that The Bahamas has been violating US laws regarding the establishment and functioning of diplomatic and consular missions for the past four decades?” the shadow minister asked.

“He was foreign minister from 2002 to 2007 during which time he visited Washington on several occasions. Why wasn’t he concerned about this issue before? If he was paying attention, he would know that Bahamians obtain consular services daily from our Embassy to the United States,” Mr Chipman said.

He noted that improving and maintaining the smooth and effective functioning of the diplomatic and consular missions “is not rocket science”.

“All that is required is the provision of adequate resources, professional and competent personnel, a proper working environment and competent leadership, particularly at the ministerial level. The latter component is sorely lacking today, and it has been since May 7, 2012,” he added.

“The PLP government is simply moving the primary consular functions from the embassy to a new location in Washington in leased accommodations. When one reads last week’s news story, you would think that these services were never provided and the minister’s press release infers that the FNM and various PLP administrations were all delinquent in that regard. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Mr Chipman said.

Mr Chipman concluded that Mr Mitchell refuses to be accountable for the financial performance of his Ministry and “is clearly more concerned with tracking his frequent flyer miles than he is in tracking the financial performance of his ministry”.