By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE FREE National Movement yesterday issued a scathing rebuke of the former Progressive Liberal Party administration as it rejected culpability for the recent downgrade threat by Moody’s credit rating agency.

In a statement, the FNM party defended the government’s decision to “lay bare” the country’s economic woes, and took aim at PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts’ accusation that the incoming government was to blame for the impending downgrade review.

Stating Mr Roberts was “stuck in the twilight zone,” the party noted the PLP should be “hiding in the shadows and begging for forgiveness”.

“Each year for four consecutive years under the PLP administration the international rating agencies downgraded The Bahamas’ credit rating and should a fifth downgrade come it would be as a direct result of the PLP mismanagement of our finances,” the statement said.

“The Bahamian people know that two months of the Minnis led administration has had no negative affect on the finances of our country.”

It continued: “After four consecutive down grades, a $400m deficit and the litany of wasted public funds on questionable contracts, and hundreds of millions of missing money from the Public Treasury, the PLP should be hiding in the shadows and begging for forgiveness.

“The unholy mess the country now finds itself in can only be laid squarely at the feet of the last PLP administration.

“This FNM government is and has done the right thing by exposing them even if in doing so the ugly details come to the attention of the international rating agencies.”

Last month, Moody’s expressed alarm at the “significantly worse” fiscal deterioration unveiled by the government’s 2017-2018 budget; however, at the time its lead analyst indicated no ‘junk’ downgrade was imminent.

The credit rating agency warned its global markets the Bahamas’ planned $722m borrowing showed this nation’s fiscal strength was “much weaker” than it had bargained for.

In a “credit opinion” released on July 7, however, which provided rationale for placing The Bahamas’ sovereign creditworthiness under a “downgrade review”, the rating agency said its decision was sparked by the dramatically revised fiscal projections unveiled by the new government.

Yesterday, the FNM also said: “[The government] they pulled no punches in disclosing to the nation the extent of a government gone array under the old PLP regime.

“The deputy prime minister and minister of finance laid bare the depth and width of the financial mess left behind by the PLP. The cupboards were left bare indeed.

“Unlike the corrupt PLP who preferred to keep the Bahamian people in the dark, the Minnis led government did what all responsible and transparent governments do.

“They informed the nation of ‘the bitter pill’ the country would have to swallow as a result of the reckless mismanagement of an old tired corrupt PLP regime.

“The truth came to the notice of the international rating agencies. When Moody’s found out the truth, and realised it was duped by the PLP government, they undertook to do what responsible rating agencies do that is they heralded their intention to take another look at the Bahamian economy,” the FNM noted.