By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has dismissed criticism of his administration’s financial reporting as “political mischievousness,” after a $137m swing between a projected April surplus and the actual deficit triggered sharp Opposition attacks and media scrutiny.

The Ministry of Finance recently reported a $2.1m deficit for April, contrasting with a $135.4m surplus that Mr Davis cited during his May budget communication. 

Yesterday, the Office of The Prime Minister said the earlier figure was based on preliminary estimates and later revised through standard Treasury reconciliation, including delayed postings for interest payments on government securities.

OPM insisted the adjustment does not impact the government’s fiscal outlook, which remains on track to cut the deficit to between 0.3 and 0.7 percent of GDP by the end of the 2024/2025 fiscal year.

“The surplus is predicted for 25/26. April 2025 will impact what we call the 2024/25 fiscal year and that’s why, when people don’t understand and just be misled by political mischievousness, and that’s what it is, because it’s a complete misrepresentation,” Mr Davis said during an earlier press conference.

“In May 2025 I gave a preliminary estimate of what the income was for April of 2025 after it was adjusted, there was a $2m  deficit, two point whatever it is deficit but that doesn’t impact the fiscal year, because we still had May and June. And then you look at what was the prediction of our deficit to GDP. We predicted that our deficit, the GDP for this fiscal year, would be anywhere between point 3 percent to point 7 percent that’s what we predicted. Has that changed? Has that prediction changed? So I’m now talking about the 24/25 fiscal year.”

Mr Davis criticized the Nassau Guardian and he accused managing editor Candia Dames of editorial bias even though the paper accurately reflected the discrepancy in figures. He argued the public was owed an apology and urged journalists to verify government figures before publishing opinionated claims.

He also questioned whether critics were casting doubt on the credibility of international watchdogs like the IMF and credit rating agencies that routinely review the country’s accounts.

“What,” he said, “you’re also suggesting is that the IMF who comes in and almost audit our accounts, the other rating agencies, when they come and audit our accounts, you are saying that they too, They are, they are liars, or they don’t know what they’re doing. Because why are we going to be as was suggested cooking books or saying things that are not true? Yes, we could make a mistake, and yes we do sometimes make mistakes, but we we are not in any way misleading these people on our fiscal handling.”