By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE government’s bid to utilise $41.3m from dormant bank accounts to set up a disaster relief fund is one step closer to law, after the Senate yesterday voted in favour of both the Bank and Trust Companies Amendment Bill and the Central Bank of the Bahamas Amendment Bill.

The bills, once enacted into law, would give the Central Bank of the Bahamas the legal backing to “transfer” money from accounts that have been dormant for seven consecutive years and hold it in the consolidated fund for government use in the event of a natural disaster.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis first announced the plan last week.

The leader of Government Business in the Senate, Attorney General Carl Bethel, clashed with opposition senators in his bid to have the pair of bills approved in the upper chamber yesterday.

Pushing back against claims made by Opposition Senate Leader Fred Mitchell and former Grand Bahama Minister Michael Darville, Mr Bethel said assertions that the government was “illegally grabbing” money from dormant accounts were misleading, and at its core, disingenuous.

He was responding directly to Mr Darville’s claims that the government was tapping into funds to which it should not have access.

“To speak about a lawful action of the government, which the transfer of these funds to the Treasury will be upon passage, cannot be called the grabbing of people’s money,” Mr Bethel protested.

He further petitioned Senate president Kay Forbes Smith to have Mr Darville either amend his contribution to the debate to reflect the legal framework the Minnis administration is proposing or withdraw his claims completely.

After a lengthy back and forth between the two, Mr Darville withdrew his claims that the process would not be legal.

However, he insisted that the process, as proposed, lacked adequate support for the actions it intended to carry out.

He said: “The point that I am making is, the process, as far as we’re concerned, appeared to be unconstitutional and it is a regressive policy. That is my point.”

“Therefore, Madam President, I cannot support these bills as drafted and strongly suggest the government and the leader opposite seriously consider the amendments that our leader on this side will be moving at the appropriate time.”

That appropriate time came less than an hour later, when Mr Mitchell took to his feet to propose several changes to the amendments.

Chief among Mr Mitchell’s changes were calls for a longer timeframe before accounts could be classified as dormant, more protection for account holders and a restructuring of the bills to mandate the funds be held exclusively as a separate entity.

In each instance, Mr Mitchell and his opposition colleagues were out voted by the governing side.

Throughout the exchange, Mr Bethel maintained that the funds being transferred have no “ascertainable beneficial ownership.”

“(The government) is putting it to a public use in as much as the opposition in their own amendments want to put it to a public use,” he contended.

According to the information presented by the prime minister, there are currently 42,452 dormant accounts with a corresponding value of $88.716m as of June 2018.

However, once the amendment becomes law an initial flow of at least $41.3m would be available.

During his initial announcement of the move, Dr Minnis said government must make mature, non-isolated decisions, and as such, viewed the establishment of a disaster relief fund as the more responsible move.