By EAYREL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard said the Davis administration misused public funds when $100,000 was spent to cover travel for Family Island trips that included events encouraging people to vote for the Progressive Liberal Party’s candidate in the West Grand Bahama and Bimini by-election.

“We must remind them that Article 131 of the Constitution stipulates that sums taken from the Consolidated Fund can only be used for public purposes as approved by Parliament,” Mr Pintard said in a statement yesterday. “This is further amplified in Section 53 of the Public Finance Management Act 2023, which states that no sum can be charged on the Consolidated Fund outside of legally mandated and approved expenses. We have witnessed an unapologetic misappropriation of public funds. The prime minister has once again demonstrated a lack of public ethics and flagrant disregard for the law and the Constitution.”

Mr Pintard said the police and the Office of the Auditor General should investigate the use of public funds and resources in the by-election for political purposes.

 The Office of the Prime Minister dismissed criticism of the spending yesterday.

 “During the Prime Minister’s visits to West Grand Bahama and Bimini in October and November of last year, he inaugurated a new government complex with multiple services, he visited children benefiting from his school breakfast programme, he signed a $100m Ocean Cay expansion Heads of Agreement, he reviewed current and new infrastructure projects, including major airport and road improvements, and he led a Cabinet meeting focused on Family Islands development,” OPM said in a statement.

 “On days during which he conducted official business and then at night met with Bahamians in his capacity as leader of his party, should he have flown back to Nassau, then returned on another flight paid for by the party? Whom precisely would that have served? This attempt to generate controversy defies common sense.

 “The prime minister and his team have generated more than $2bn in new investments in our Family Islands, launched major infrastructural improvements, and are working to expand solar energy on multiple islands, so the prime minister plans to continue travelling to our islands to oversee these and other initiatives, and to visit with and hear from Family Islanders. Bahamians will decide for themselves if the progress they see justifies the cost of his visits.”