By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis urged his successor to commit not to give criminals government contracts, saying: “I cannot go into any more detail because my life would be in danger.”

Dr Minnis’ comment about what would endanger his life came after Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said such a commitment would only encourage criminal activity by taking financial means from people who would otherwise struggle to get employed.

Mr Davis recalled meeting inner city residents who were on bail for several years.

 “They said Brave I had a construction job on Paradise Island,” he said in the House of Assembly yesterday. “Someone whisper to the employer, do you know who that is working for you? What happened? The fella, next week or so, he ain’ get the job no more. And this continue to happen. They are unemployable in the mainstream employment space.

 “They said Brave, if I can’t get meaningful work, how do you expect me to survive? What do you think I could do to put food on the table? What you think I gon’ do to pay my children school fees or pay my light bill or pay my rent? What I gon’ do when my ma is sick and have to go to the hospital?”

 Mr Davis said an initiative to help people on bail “put food on their table” and “take care of their children” until their case was heard kept “idle hands busy”.

 “As you would’ve known growing up in the circumstances you suggest you grew up in, idle hands is what? The devil’s workshop,” he said.

 Dr Minnis, however, countered that he was referring to large contracts given to major criminals.

 “The prime minister knows we’re talking about apples versus grapes, two different things altogether,” he said. “Prime Minister knows that I’m referring to large contracts and I don’t want call any names cuz I may endanger myself and my family, but I would say, he knows I’m talking about Abaco, he knows I’m talking about Bozine Town, he knows I’m talking about Pinewood, he knows I’m talking about individuals who was extradited from the Dominican Republic and he knows I’m talking about individuals that served time.

“I can go on and on. He knows what I am talking about. I am not talking about the little man, the individual who still has a record that should have been expunged and as a result he has difficulty obtaining a job. I’m not talking about that. He knows exactly what I’m talking about, but I cannot go in any more detail because my life would be in danger.”

 The back and forth came as parliamentarians debated a bill to amend the Bail Act.