Newly-announced candidate for the FNM’s leadership position Loretta Butler-Turner expressed her disapproval of the current administration’s failure to improve the economy.
In a press release, Butler-Turner said the current administration has done little to improve the economy citing the downgrade of the bond and issue ratings of The Bahamas’ ratings by the credit agency Moody’s.
She says that this is another disturbing sign of the catastrophic failure of leadership on the economy by the PLP, led by Perry Christie, who she says has proven to be a spectacular failure as prime minister and as minister of finance.
“The United States of America, our largest market, continues to experience economic growth. Many countries in our region are also experiencing economic growth. But in The Bahamas we have in been in recession for a number of years, with staggeringly high unemployment.
“The lack of growth in the economy, the unemployment level and the daily suffering of scores of Bahamians are the direct consequence of the gross mismanagement of the economy by the PLP. In the meantime, the PLP government has failed to tell the Bahamian people the dismal truth about our economy and the state of the nation’s finances,” she said.
“Our economic woes are not mostly because of external factors. We are in a downward spiral because of the policy blunders and incompetence of the Christie administration. A delusional prime minister kept painting a rosy picture as the economy worsened and dark clouds settled over the country’s future. In successive budgets the PLP government projected growth.”
Butler-Turner stressed the importance of the work stoppage of Baha Mar and how the PLP’s failure to properly manage the stagnant multi-million dollar resort has played a role in the current economic decline.
“The collapse of Baha Mar and the inability to open the megaresort is the leading factor in keeping our economy paralyzed and stagnant. The PLP is directly responsible for the collapse and the inability to get Baha Mar up and running.
“The prime minister was repeatedly warned not to push Baha Mar into liquidation, which has resulted in its going into receivership, but Christie and the PLP belligerently and arrogantly put our future at risk to satisfy their petty grievances and to sooth their wounded egos.
“There was another option available to the government. The government could have guaranteed a loan to help complete and open the resort, which could now be up and running or close to operational,” Butler-Turner said.
Attorney General Allyson Maynard -Gibson over the weekend said the government has been as accountable and transparent as it possibly can.
She added that the government is totally committed to freedom of information.
