Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis said yesterday that on the watch of former Minister of Works Philip Brave Davis, $200 million of untendered contracts were awarded for contracts worth $3.5 million.
“During the Christie/Davis years, millions and millions of untendered contracts were being handed out like candy on tables at Halloween,” said Minnis during the budget debate.
“On the member of Cat Island’s watch, as minister of works, approximately $200 million in untendered contracts were awarded for contracts worth $3.5 million.
“The purpose for tendering contracts includes accountability, fairness and getting the best value for money.
“But under the PLP and the former minister of works, untendered contracts were given out left, right, center, up, down. You were just giving them out.
“It was raining untendered contracts under the PLP.
“Mr. Speaker, today accountability has replaced deals that hurt the people but benefitted the chosen few and special interests.
“And now, every tax dollar is accounted for, unlike the hundreds of millions of dollars our predecessors budgeted over the years.”
Minnis did not go into details about those contracts.
His comments prompted a back-and-forth with Englerston MP Glenys Hanna-Martin, who refuted the claims.
“The member is asserting that hundreds of millions of tax dollars went unaccounted for,” Hanna-Martin said.
“I refute that and I’m asking the member to support his assertion.”
Minnis retorted that the fact that those contracts weren’t tendered meant that there was no transparency.
Sloan Smith
Education: Vrije Universiteit Brussel (University of Brussels), MA in Mass Communications
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