By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

ts-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement chairman Carl Culmer said the party has “moved on” from the issue of Dr Duane Sands’ resignation from Cabinet and is instead focused on getting through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Culmer was contacted after Dr Sands spoke at length about the circumstances leading up to his resignation during an interview with a local daily, giving his side of the story publicly for this first time since his resignation last month. “I have no comments on that,” Mr Culmer said. “I’m finished with that. That story is dead. The Prime Minister has already addressed that and that is finished as far as I am concerned. I’m looking at the budget now and seeing how good it is for the Bahamian people.

So as far as I am concerned, that story is dead. I am more focused on what an excellent job this government is doing to advance the Bahamian people. Our focus is on the budget.”

He said the party has moved on from the situation and has turned its attention elsewhere.

“Our focus now is to work through this pandemic,” Mr Culmer continued. “We are also focused on ensuring that we find ourselves in a better place economically, in order to get Bahamians back where they were and create new opportunities for them.

“As far as I am concerned, it makes no sense to keep rehashing this business with Dr Sands over and over. We must thank Dr Sands for his contributions and we look forward to him working with the party to win the next election, but as far as his resignation is concerned, that is a dead issue.”

The Elizabeth MP offered his resignation to Dr Minnis early last month for his actions related to six permanent residents who landed in the country with COVID-19 testing supplies and were allowed to quarantine at home before they produced a negative COVID-19 test result. Dr Minnis said there was a breach of protocol in the matter.

Dr Sands resigned a day after telling The Tribune he had no plans to step down from his post.

In an interview with the Nassau Guardian, Dr Sands revealed his frustration over a leaked resignation letter which he insisted he did not write.

“A statement was prepared through the Office of the Prime Minister ostensibly, for my consideration and review,” Dr Sands said of the events leading to his resignation. “It was sent to me, I looked at it and while in principle the general theme was okay, there were certain specific issues that I wished to be revised. I communicated that, and I asked for an opportunity to revise the statement. I sought the advice of the attorney general, who concurred with my position.

“As I am sitting at my computer making a revision to a document that I had said to the competent authority I was not prepared to affix my signature to, it shows up on social media. An individual who forwarded the document to him inquiring about its authenticity, claimed to have forwarded it from the Killarney Free National Movement (FNM) WhatsApp group in which the person is a member.”

The document in question claimed Dr Sands apologised to Dr Minnis and offered his resignation but the prime minister “graciously refused to accept it.” Dr Sands denied the legitimacy of the statement on social media. Thirty minutes later, he released a similar statement about his resignation.

Speaking with The Nassau Guardian, Dr Sands said he called the Prime Minister and voiced his concerns after he saw the document in question.

“There was no effort to disassociate the document which was in circulation from the government of the Bahamas or the Office of the Prime Minister, and since it had not come from me, I thought it was important for the people to know this was not a legitimate document,” added Dr Sands.

“I then wrote my response, I submitted it to the prime minister, and then made an appointment to hand deliver it, and then posted it as promised.”

Some observers expressed hope that the Prime Minister would not accept Dr Sands’ resignation.

In his interview, Dr Sands said his decision to tender his letter of resignation with immediate effect was both a matter of principle, and a matter of his discomfort with what he was being asked to sign off on.

The Office of the Prime Minister did not comment when contacted yesterday.