OPPOSITION MEASURED IN PROVIDING ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT REGARDING FTX COLLAPSE

We have to be mature and measured even though some wish for us to say or ask nothing. However, having listened and watched the actions of the Davis Administration in the aftermath of the FTX collapse I am compelled to raise several matters. The government of the Bahamas (GOB) owes a duty of transparency to the Bahamian people and the international public. It is that responsibility for transparency (hallmark of good governance) upon which the Opposition insists: One, there needs to be full inquiry into all FTX connected matters in the Bahamas. We don’t expect to cut across the judicial insolvency related investigation ongoing in which the Joint Provisional Liquidators (JPLs) are court appointed functionaries and whom will report to the court. That process should take its course.

We credit the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) with acting to have FTX removed from Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and its executive control and placed into provisional liquidation. Two, there will need to be in time a review of regulatory oversight conducted within ambit of the DARE Act and an examination as to whether there is a need for restructuring, or enhancing. Three, more immediately, the GOB (PM, AG, the Executive) needs to give full accounting of its relationship with SBF and his FTX in circumstances where there’s now been placed in international public domain the question of trust and credibility of the GOB. Four, there ought immediately to be a parliamentary inquiry. Too much is at stake for the Bahamas for the entire government not to move expeditiously yet wisely to address vexing questions and put forth our country’s position.