Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis is calling on the government to table all audits related to Public Health in The Bahamas.
His comments came on the heels of the government tabling a bill to establish National Health Insurance in The Bahamas in the House of Assembly this week.
“Transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of any government that truly serves the people. The PLP has all but obliterated those cornerstones and today we have but one more example of their dubious efforts,” Dr. Minnis said in a statement.
“This week Bahamians are finally receiving a trickle of details for the PLP Government’s long promised NHI plans. And as a Doctor, I can say their aim is laudable, it is the details that we need to see. Yet, trust with this PLP Government is in short supply from their years of empty rhetoric and broken promises, and the fact that they have failed to table any audits of the Public Hospital Authority (PHA) in four years, gives the people pause about their true intentions with the NHI plan.”
The government has announced that there will be no taxes to fund NHI rather the plan will be funded through the government’s consolidated fund.
Health Minister Dr. Perry Gomez said spending in the health care sector has increased over the past several years and that costs continue to rise in a somewhat “unpredictable manner.”
However, Dr. Minnis said the government must provide audits of the country’s Public Health Care system before it can move forward with the plan.
“How are we to assess the PLP Government’s proposal on the future of the Bahamian healthcare system if we are not privy to the details of the audits from the last four years? Again, the PLP would have us trust them, but their long, dubious record suggests otherwise,” Dr. Minnis said.
“It was the embattled Prime Minister Christie himself, who previously alluded to the fact that he did not like the quality of these audits and wanted more audits conducted into the PHA. The question deserves to be asked: what did the embattled prime minister not want the Bahamian people to see in these reports?
In 2014, PHA Director Herbert Brown was suspended after it was alleged that $30 million was misappropriated from the authority.
However, he was quickly reinstated.
Dr. Minnis said there have been too many instances of corruption in the Christie administration to not table PHA audits.
“With wide spread corruption throughout the PLP Government the Bahamian people deserve to see these audits before debate begins on the NHI plans,” Dr. Minnis said.
“ Previous external reports already suggest a severe culture of slackness and corruption within the PHA. So it’s of the upmost concern to the people when they hear the PLP Health Minister to announce just last week that he does not know when these reports will be tabled. How can this be the case on the eve of such a pivotal debate about the future of the Bahamian healthcare system?
“The Bahamian people deserve to know what all audits of the government say under the law, but especially those of the Public Hospital Authority, before this PLP Government attempts to rush through NHI before the election. It will be the people left to foot the bill for their election year policy making, and the past has shown this can be very costly to the Bahamian people while failing to deliver the promised results. The FNM will not allow this to happen without a fight. And that fight starts with transparency and accountability in government. The people will be heard in this important debate and the FNM will stand side by side for them in this fight.”
