By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

WHILE doubling down on criticism of the former Minnis administration, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said there were “disturbing” commonalities emerging from three separate investigations now underway that sparked great cause for concern.

Speaking about the Minnis administration’s National Food Distribution Task Force, Mr Davis said the programme’s chairperson, Mrs Susan Holowesko Larson, was paid a salary of $1,750 per week or about $7,000 a month. He told Parliament that it appeared the food programme did not have to give account for how its allocation of $53m was spent, adding that about nine percent or $4.7m of this amount had been reserved for administrative fees and start-up costs.

 He also referred to ongoing investigations into the Bahamas Public Parks and Public Beaches Authority and the Bahamas Travel Visa programme. As he began to unpack some of the findings of the ongoing investigations, Mr Davis said it was evident that the former government had used COVID-19 emergency spending to bypass ordinary procurement rules, allowing them to hide their spending decisions.

 He noted his previous calls on the former administration to give account for their dealings.

 This triggered former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis to tell Parliament: “The member said we are hiding financial spending, that would imply some degree of corruption. I would suggest that the member do the investigations. If he finds any degree of corruption my position is straight.

 “If he finds any, charge me, lock me up. If he finds other members, do the same. My position is straight. I am totally anti-corruption. Investigate and let the chips (fall) where they may,” Dr Minnis said.

 Mr Davis replied that this would not be an issue had the member for Killarney done his job, ensuring there was proper accounting of funds spent.

 “Let me warn you, the best that can be said for the member for Killarney who oversaw and then obscured the spending, is that he was aggressively incompetent,” Mr Davis said.

“In addition to her salary,” Mr Davis also said about the food initiative, “while setting up the programme, Mrs Susan Holowesko Larson indicated to people on a Zoom call, that she was also reserving eight percent of what was being given to her (for) administration fees and she had a start-up cost of one percent.

 “And I could confirm it. I have the information about it,” he said, holding up a sheet of paper. “Now whether that was paid or not we don’t know. That looks like about $4.7m. I thought that this was something, they said NGO. When you say NGO I thinking it was something volunteered. That’s what I thought. Were they really paid this money? We’ll find out.

 “Notwithstanding the fact that the Ministry of Social Services has oversight of food distribution programmes, neither the permanent secretary nor the director of Social Services were consulted on the design and implementation of the food distribution programme.

 “It would appear that none of the well established organisations were involved either, such as the Red Cross, or the major churches, who have many years experience of food distribution, and would not have charged for doing so,” Mr Davis said.

 “There is a complete absence of records on the spending of the $53m: no standardised reporting of results, and two entities, which received collectively over $15m, have refused to respond to queries as to how the money was issued or used.

 “Also, some entities were directed by the chairwoman to pay money to other organisations, which shows at a minimum the haphazard design of the programme.

 “We were extremely surprised to hear Mrs Holowesko Larson describe in an interview, the almost $2 million surplus payment to Hands for Hunger, as an ‘accounting error’.”

 “While the phrase ‘accounting error’ may cover a multitude of sins, what we do know is that on February 17, 2022, she said she knew of no organisation that had such a balance in an interview with those persons she was talking to.

 “But we note that when the entity that had the funds had to return it, they said they had told her of these monies. So, we don’t know where the truth lies, but eventually that will also be known.”

 Mr Davis continued: “During the inquiries it was discovered they started off saying that they had a $1.1 something million dollars to return and then they later discovered there is a misapplication or another accounting error where there was another $588,000 that was not properly booked and therefore that $1.1 whatever ended up being $1.77 million. And still, no questions were being asked about all of these things.”

 Mr Davis questioned what was the point of holding up the money when there were thousands in need of food.

 Regarding the Parks and Beaches Authority, Mr Davis said there had been no internal controls, adding management there have claimed they had no specimen signature of the former Chairman Shanendon Cartwright.

 He said large value contracts issued by the authority contain three distinct signatures, all purporting to be that of the chairman.

 Mr Davis said: “Simple logic dictates that at least two of them must be fraudulent, unless Mr Cartwright authorised someone to sign his signature. Who was signing these contracts?”

 In response, Dr Minnis said he was hopeful that an investigation was conducted, adding that he himself had three signatures.

 Mr Cartwright, who is also St Barnabas MP, said no one has determined from the former executive himself that any of the signatures were in fact his signature.

 Of the Bahamas Travel Health Visa, Mr Davis said someone at the Ministry of Tourism made a verbal agreement with private company, Kanoo, to set up the scheme. It was outside of the normal public service and some $34.5 million of the Bahamian people’s money passed through Kanoo November 2020 to August 2021. The company’s private bank account was also outside of the public service and in direct contravention of the law, he said.