When the Free National Movement raised the alarm about the Government moving $265 million into the National Investment Fund without proper parliamentary approval, the Prime Minister responded. His answer was that it was legal because it was mentioned in a borrowing resolution. That answer is not good enough because it is wrong.
Here is the simple truth: a borrowing resolution gives the Government permission to take on debt. It does not give the Government permission to spend or transfer that money. Those are two different things, and the law treats them as two different things.
The Constitution of The Bahamas and the Public Finance Management Act are clear: no public money can be spent unless Parliament formally authorizes it through a Budget or a Supplementary Appropriations Bill. The Debt Management Act goes further, explicitly requiring that all money borrowed by the Government through sovereign bonds must go into the country’s Consolidated Fund before it can be used for anything.
The Government sidestepped the law. Hundreds of millions of dollars from a public bond, debt that every Bahamian will be repaying, was moved into a fund without the constitutionally required approval.
The FNM is demanding straight answers to three questions:
- Where in the national Budget is this $265 million sum appropriated by Parliament? If there is no related Appropriations, then what law authorizes it?
- If this money counts as spending, how does the Government still claim to be running a surplus after the $265 budget expenditure?
- Who controls the National Investment Fund, and what stops this Government or any future government from using it however they see fit?
How could hundreds of millions of dollars of the people’s money be transferred to a fund when the people have not been told who has been appointed to manage these funds?
The Prime Minister has had his opportunity to explain. His explanation did not hold up. The FNM’s position is simple: put the money back into the Consolidated Fund, bring a proper Appropriations Bill to Parliament, and let the people’s representatives vote on it. That is how the law and democracy works. A government that borrows in the public’s name and then disperses it without the public’s approval through Parliament is a government that cannot be trusted with another five years.