PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis was keen to point the finger of blame yesterday.

During his mid-year Budget speech in the House of Assembly, Mr Davis ticked off a catalogue of complaints.

He railed against the former government’s handling of the food assistance programme, despite the fact that an investigation is already under way by the Auditor General and a report hasn’t been delivered yet.

He complained that the Parks and Beaches Authority had been used as a “slush fund” and that evidence of wrongdoing there was “overwhelming” while not providing that evidence.

He also lashed out at the Bahamas Travel Health Visa, citing the Auditor General’s report on the scheme and saying it was “truly shocking”, despite the Auditor General actually praising the “vision and implementation” of the Health Travel Visa. There were concerns raised by the Auditor General, such as the lack of competitive bidding, a measure that has been repeated by this administration in the selection of a company to provide insurance services.

Mr Davis also claimed that one of the non-governmental organisations involved in the food programme had “close to $2m sitting in their bank accounts. Why?”

Well, if he’d asked that question of the NGO rather than in Parliament, he might have found the answer. Opposition Leader Michael Pintard already castigated Mr Davis for suggesting the NGO may have been doing something untoward, and in fact the sum has already been repaid when the government asked.

There are two things you might notice about this speech – first, it was quite scattershot, taking aim at all manner of targets; and second, it was all claim, no evidence.

If someone is doing something wrong, lay out the evidence. If someone has broken the law, follow the processes to penalise them. Don’t just stand there using Parliamentary privilege to make accusations and not back them up. It brings back bad memories of Jerome Fitzgerald reading out emails for a non-governmental organisation he says he found in his political trash can.

What will be crucial will be to see whether Mr Davis actually acts on these accusations. If he does and a court finds wrongdoing to have taken place, then well done, that’s exactly what we want to see. If he doesn’t, then is this just all talk?

The clue to that might be when he says that he has been approached by some who have pre-emptively sought forgiveness and offered to implicate others higher up in the hierarchy, but he has not entertained discussions as it would be inappropriate.

Why not? Invite those people to commit it all to record and provide the information to the Auditor General and the police if necessary. To have someone come up to you and say I know something was done wrong and I can tell you who was responsible only to turn a deaf ear seems implausible to say the least.

Mr Davis says that steps “have and will be taken to ensure that those responsible will be held accountable”, but who has determined who is accountable if he isn’t listening to people? What process is being used to apportion blame? The Auditor General, who praised the implementation of the health visa that Mr Davis is lambasting?

“The chips will fall where they may,” concludes Mr Davis, rather than identifying those he holds to blame for inappropriate actions and tabling the evidence for all to see.

So if Mr Davis comes back and shows the evidence, we shall take him seriously, and if there is wrongdoing proven, we shall praise him for snuffing it out. But if this is all talk? Well, we’ve all had enough of that.