By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A NUMBER of Free National Movement promises made during the previous general election campaign remained unfulfilled when Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis called an early election last week.

Promises to boost good governance by implementing a programme of transparency and accountability had dominated the FNM’s rally speeches and agenda during the 2017 election campaign.

The party promised to fully enact the Freedom of Information Act, to implement campaign finance legislation, to reform local government and to change public procurement rules.

It promised fixed terms for Prime Ministers, a recall system for elected officials and fixed election dates.

The FNM also promised to amend regulations to the Constitution to establish an independent Boundaries Commission and to amend the Public Disclosure Act to “broaden its scope of application to include campaign finance reform and to make provision for direct referral to an independent prosecutor,” according to its 2017 manifesto.

Ultimately, the Minnis administration passed a Public Procurement Act earlier this year, which will come into force on September 1. In May, the administration also identified the Freedom of Information commissioner and deputy commissioner, though the substantive law has yet to fully come into force.

Almost no progress has been made on the party’s other good governance reform promises.

A report on reforming local government, which was produced by a local government advisory committee, has been ignored. Bills establishing an Office of Ombudsman and an Integrity Commission were among the first bills tabled in the House of Assembly, but they were never debated or passed. Public officials can continue disclosing their financial information with no expectation that their claims will be checked and verified.

Critics insist the lack of progress shows the Minnis administration never prioritised its good governance reform agenda, despite the attention it received on the campaign trail.

Dr Minnis, however, has blamed Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19 for throwing his agenda off course.

“I am still a strong advocate for term limits for Prime Ministers,” he said in May. “I am still a strong advocate that no Prime Minister should go beyond two terms, ten years. I am still a strong advocate for fixed (election) dates, that’s still coming. But as I’ve said, priorities had to be shifted because we have three years of destruction. We could have totally ignored the destruction and just stick to your programme, but if you did that your country would be a disaster.

“We could have concentrated only on the catastrophic problems that we faced, but then what happens? Your country stagnates and you don’t move. It was impossible to deal with all of what we promised within that one (term) but be assured that all will be done.”

Hurricane Irma impacted The Bahamas in 2017 while Hurricane Dorian ravaged Abaco and Grand Bahama in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life in The Bahamas since March 2020.

“We had three challenges so we had to decide whether you just stop and deal with catastrophic problems or are you a true government and run on two parallel tracks, one track deals with catastrophic problems that you face or another track and still move the country forward,” Dr Minnis said.

“We kept on course with moving the country forward. We had stated that what we want to do, we want to ensure that each and every Bahamian is entitled to partake in what we termed the Bahamian dream.”