27/08/2026
We warned time and time again that Philip Davis’ imaginary surplus was a campaign gimmick. Now, we know just how badly his administration misled us all: this PLP has increased the direct debt on the Bahamian people and their children by some $700 million.
Yet, in their typical arrogant fashion, no PLP Ministers have come forward to even try to explain this fiscal disaster.
The Minister of Finance stated in his Budget Communication that gross borrowings exceeded debt repayments by approximately $700 million and that these so-called “excess borrowing” receipts were transferred to the National Investment Fund.
Let us be clear. Borrowing money and moving public funds are not matters of simple Ministerial discretion. They are governed by law. To take $700 million in borrowed funds out of the consolidated fund to use requires parliamentary authority in the form of an appropriation. That is by law. That is by constitution.
I have written to this Minister of Finance and the former one seeking answers to straightforward questions.
Where did the authority come from to transfer seven hundred million dollars into the National Investment Fund?
Where is the parliamentary approval for those transfers?
Who controls the Fund and signs the cheques?
Who sits on its Board of the Fund?
Where is the legally required governance framework?
Where is the legally required website and the public reporting?
The Government's silence tells us that they have no acceptable answer.
Clearly to us they are breaking the law. In our view, without a related Appropriations Act, they are engaged in misappropriation of public funds. Plain and simple.
We are even more troubled given that $700 million in possibly misappropriated funds was being passed around during an election year. With what we are seeing with the voucher programme and what we witnessed during the election campaign, we are convinced that a good portion of those funds went to further narrow partisan political interests and not the good of the Bahamian people.
This is not how a lawful, transparent government behaves.
This is not how public money is supposed to be managed.
It’s long past the time for the government to come clean.
Publish every authorization.
Publish every resolution.
Publish the names of the Board members of the National Investment Fund.
Publish the details of every penny of whatever portion of the $700 million has been spent.
If everything was lawful, prove it.
If everything was properly authorized, show the Bahamian people.
And if the Government cannot do that, then Bahamians must conclude the worst: This PLP government cannot account for its use of public funds, and much of it ended up where it didn’t belong.
No more spin.
No more excuses.
The Bahamian people deserve answers.
