A senior Cabinet minister said that the Opposition is wasting its time and only “speaking to hear itself” following criticisms of the government’s first 100 days in office.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell was responding to comments by the Free National Movement (FNM) Leader, Dr. Hubert Minnis who hosted a news conference at the FNM headquarters yesterday.

“Opposition parties have to find something to say and so I’m not surprised that this comes from them,” he told the Bahama Journal yesterday.

“The fact is that the Cabinet went over everything, we had to be careful and sure that we were acting in accordance with what the charter for governance said. Each of those promises has been fulfilled; not one of them has been unfulfilled. What may happen in their case is that many people heard many things about what was supposed to happen in these 100 days, but what the PLP has to be held to, is what was said in the Charter for Governance and we will fulfill those promises.”

Dr. Minnis said yesterday that of the 14 specific promises made to the Bahamian people during the campaign, the PLP has only partially delivered only six of them.

The FNM said the PLP Government has not released details about the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme, but according to Mr. Mitchell, that is not the case.

“I think [Dr. Perry] Gomez gave a communication to Parliament in which he outlined the steps being taken to move towards the programme and that fulfills what we said we would do,” he said.

“I think we are doing an okay job. We met in place an absolute mess. We had no idea that the mess was as problematic as it is, but we have a prime minister who has been able to pull people together. He is committed along with the Cabinet to fix things.”

Mr. Mitchell said their opponents misled the PLP and the Bahamian people about what they would meet once they took office.

“We have no complaints, though, and we will fix it all,” he said.

“The big thing is to get people back to work. Too many people are still suffering and all of this is a hangover from the mess that these people left, so they have a nerve to be talking about the 100 days. We will get the work done with the help of God.”

Dr. Minnis said the only six promises which have been “partially completed” include the re-launch of Urban Renewal, the creation of a Ministry of Grand Bahama, the re-establishment of the “functionally superfluous” Ministry of Financial Services and Investments, reduction of stamp duty, imposition of a ceiling on the maximum level of Real Property Taxes and details on the proposed referendum for a national lottery.